Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Co-Hosts United States–India Strategic Dialogue on Biosecurity to Discuss Lessons from the Second Year of National Pandemic Responses

April 7, 2022 – On February 8 and 9, 2022, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health co-hosted a virtual dialogue session with the Regional Centre for Biotechnology of the Department of Biotechnology in the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology. The meeting focused on successes, challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned in the second year of COVID-19 responses in India and the United States, and how COVID-19 response efforts can continue while also preparing for future health security crises.

The meeting convened senior thought leaders, scientists, public health practitioners, and medical experts from the United States and India. In accordance with the dialogue format, participants offered insights based on personal expertise and did not represent the government of either country in an official capacity. Discussions centered around national response efforts, mass vaccination, surveillance approaches, causes and biosecurity implications of COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, synthetic biological risks, global biosecurity governance, and the need for future collaboration among countries and within the scientific community.

India and the United States experienced large waves of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths during 2021. Participants from both countries stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic reaffirmed the need to make public health and biosecurity priorities at both national and global levels. Participants also called for strengthened commitments to the Biological Weapons Convention, overhauls of domestic public health systems, and increased collaboration between India and the United States.

Read the meeting report.

About the United States-India Strategic Dialogue on Biosecurity

This meeting is an adapted and shortened version of the United States–India Strategic Dialogue on Biosecurity. The first 7 meetings of this Dialogue occurred in Washington, DC; New Delhi; Hyderabad; and virtually over the past 6 years. The meetings are organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, with an award from the Biological Threat Reduction Program, supported by the US Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency.