WMD Threat Reduction Programs Suffer from Neglect.

• Author: Moon, William M.
• Position: Viewpoint

There has been a lot of discussion on the importance of supporting and heeding the advice of scientists as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. It is more important than ever to support our experts as they combat the outbreak.

But there is another group that is also deserving of our attention--the government workers, supporting contractors, nongovernmental organizations and academics that work to prevent and mitigate potential catastrophes from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

This WMD threat reduction community is dedicated to addressing nuclear, chemical, biological, radiological and improvised threats, to include natural and manmade incidents and actions that would be far more devastating than anything seen from COVID-19.

The individual threats of such disasters may be considered low-probability events, but the consequences of such incidents and the results of inaction could be extremely devastating. A nuclear attack, or any kind of nuclear detonation--whether an intentional military action, a terrorist attack, or an accident --could cause millions or tens of millions of deaths with far greater hospitalizations and economic impacts than the world is experiencing today.

During this time of crisis, it's more important than ever to continue the work to prevent and mitigate future cataclysmic events and avoid the inclination to think that this pandemic means that future high consequence incidents are now less likely or aren't worth the time and attention. The public and policymakers need to review how they evaluate these essential programs. Support is urgently needed by the WMD threat reduction community to avoid and lessen the chances and effects of a future global disaster.

The mission of preventing and mitigating low-probability/high-consequence events is a unique and essential federal governmental function that suffers from constant budget pressures and continuously eroding public and political support. Additionally, international cooperation efforts are often seriously underfunded and frequently criticized.

Federal neglect for such events reached its most dangerous point in January 2020 in the fiscal year 2021 Defense-Wide Review report to Congress that explicitly "reduces the Cooperative Threat Reduction program by eliminating efforts for low-to-near zero probability threats." Ironically, this issuance was promulgated just as the low-probability/high-consequence coronavirus pandemic was making its way to the United States.

Those...