Understanding America’s National Blueprint for Biodefense 2024 the Disease and the Year has Changed

SOURCE: excerpt of July 4th 2025 bio attack Scenario The following hypothetical opening remarks by the chair of a congressional joint inquiry provide context for this report by portraying a biological attack sufficient to cause the catastrophic consequences warned of by the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense. The scenario describes how a biological agent could target humans and animals, how it could emerge, some of the key interagency capabilities required to address the agent and its impacts, and the consequences of failure. JOINT INQUIRY INTO ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESSIONAL ACTIONS BEFORE AND DURING THE BIOTERRORIST ATTACKS OF JULY 4, 2025 US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND US SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE CHAIR: I call this first hearing of the Joint Inquiry to order. Nine weeks ago, some nation or terrorist group—we still do not know who—attacked the Nation’s Capital and other US cities with biological weapons as we celebrated Independence Day. The infectious agent they used killed at least 280,000 Americans and infected at least 400,000 throughout the country in a single day, in addition to the 200,000 dead and 800,000 sickened animals. These numbers will increase as the disease spreads. Many of our own colleagues and staff here in Congress fell ill and died. Coordinated attacks in allied nations in the days that followed killed tens of thousands more. We are now hearing that the terrorists conducted smaller scale attacks in American cities and localities prior to the July 4 incidents to test our defenses and gauge our responses. These smaller scale attacks went largely unnoticed. Laboratory tests confirm that Nipah virus caused the disease, but we still do not know what methods our adversaries used to infect humans and spread the disease among livestock in rural communities. Animals and people were sick for more than a month before we realized what had happened. While the virus is in the same family as other common human and animal viruses, most American veterinarians and physicians had never seen Nipah virus before, which delayed recognition. The virus, which in nature does not spread easily among people, was genetically modified to increase its ability to spread from animalto-animal, animal-to-person, and person-to-person, while still retaining a mortality rate of over 40%.

SOURCE:

https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/federal-report-simulates-july-4th-2025-bioterror-attack-as-the-fda-goes-rogue/