Robert Kadlec

Robert Kadlec   (spook, biological warfare expert)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	United States Air Force Academy, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Georgetown University
Member of	Council on Foreign Relations/Members 2
Perpetrator of	Crimson Contagion
Interests	• biological weapons • anthrax • public-private partnerships

Robert P. Kadlec is an American physician and career officer in the United States Air Force, specializing in biological weapons. He currently serves as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services (Preparedness and Response), where he directs the Covid-19 response. He directed the 2019 pandemic exercise Crimson Contagion.

Career

Kadlec holds a Bachelor’s degree from the United States Air Force Academy, Doctorate of Medicine and Master’s of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and Master’s degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Kadlec spent 26 years as a career officer and physician in the United States Air Force.

He served at the White House from 2002 to 2005 as a Director for Biodefense Preparedness on the Homeland Security Council, where he was responsible for conducting the biodefense end-to-end assessment, which culminated in drafting the National Biodefense Policy for the 21st century.

He has served as the Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and was Senior Director for Biodefense Policy on the Homeland Security Council from 2007 to 2009, and staff director for U.S. Senator Richard Burr's subcommittee on bioterrorism and public health.

In this capacity, he was instrumental in drafting the Pandemic and All-Hazard Preparedness Act that was signed into law.

Kadlec was serving as Deputy Staff Director for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when he was nominated by President Donald Trump to become Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services (Preparedness and Response). Kadlec was confirmed for this position by the United States Senate on August 3, 2017.

Office of Preparedness and Response

In his capacity as the leader of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Kadlec said in March 2018 that his office is taking on several efforts to protect the U.S. from "21st century health security threats." These threats could include the deployment of bio-weapons (such as infectious diseases, bacteria, viruses, or toxins) or the release of chemical weapons (such as chlorine gas or mustard gas). Kadlec said that these threats have continued to rise in the U.S. and abroad.

At an event organized by the European Parliament on 7th March 2018 in Brussels, he categorically denied the existence of an American bio-weapons program at a seminar on the threat of biological and chemical weapons.

ASPR recommends that all first responders become familiar with the ASPR’s Primary Response Incident Scene Management (PRISM) series, "which Kadlec said has been developed to provide evidence-based guidance on mass casualty disrobe and decontamination during a chemical incident." The PRISM guidance documentation was developed based on scientific evidence gathered under a research program sponsored by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). ASPR oversees BARDA in the HHS hierarchy.

In September 2019, the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology—which stores deadly pathogens such as smallpox, Ebola and anthrax—had a gas explosion, which created a potential deadly situation. While none of the lethal pathogens were released during the incident, Kadlec spoke out after the incident, saying, that the potential use of smallpox as a bioweapon means “the virus remains a potential threat to national and global health security.”

When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a U.S. biotechnology company, Emergent BioSolutions (a partner of DARPA, a contract for the company's smallpox vaccine, Kadlec again spoke out about the importance and urgency of stockpiling that particular vaccine, saying, “We do not know whether all samples of the virus, outside of two WHO-designated labs, actually have been found and destroyed; at the same time, synthetic biology for technology continues to advance and in the future could allow smallpox to be created as a bioweapon. For those reasons, the virus remains a potential threat to national and global health security. Having vaccines and treatments at-the-ready will be imperative to saving lives,”

In 2019, Kadlec's office provided federal grant funding to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital for leading a partnership of over 60 agencies within five states to establish a "West Coast Center of Excellence in Pediatric Disaster Care." Kadlec remarked, “These pilot projects will serve as the proving ground and identify gaps in resources and services that are vital to the continuity of pediatric health care delivery. We hope these projects will define the delivery of pediatric clinical care when existing systems become stressed or overwhelmed.”

Biodefense work

In January 2018, Kadlec testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a hearing investigating public health threats and reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA). He testified in full support of reauthorizing the PAHPA law. In the decades before and after PAHPA was passed, Kadlec worked in various government capacities focused on biodefense and national security. In the White House Homeland Security Council, Kadlec had served as Director for Biodefense. He also served as Director for Biodefense as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Biodefense Policy from 2007 to 2009.

Legislation and policy support

In 2019, Kadlec supported passage of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act (PAHPAIA), writing in July 2019, "PAHPAIA increases the budget authorization and provides ten-year funding for product development. We know next-generation medical countermeasures aren’t developed overnight – in fact, getting a product across the finish line takes many years. Multi-year funding helps BARDA continue building the strong public-private partnerships needed to spur innovation and provide the private sector with the stability needed to produce potentially lifesaving medical countermeasures."

 

An event carried out

Event	Location	Description
Crimson Contagion	New York US	An U.S. nationwide exercise in how to handle an influenza pandemic. Held January to August 2019

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Operation Dark Winter	22 June 2001	23 June 2001	Washington DC Andrews Air Force Base	An exercise where senior former officials would respond to a bioterrorist induced national security crisis. Uncannily predicted the 2001 anthrax attacks and other narratives. Held June 2001.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:All Roads Lead to Dark Winter	report	1 April 2020	Whitney Webb

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References

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