42 U.S.C. § 247d–6 — Public health countermeasures to a bioterrorist attack

(a) All-hazards public health and medical response curricula and training The Secretary, working with the Secretary of Defense and consulting relevant public and private groups, must develop core health and medical response curricula and training by adapting existing curricula and training programs to improve responses to public health emergencies. This training program may cover: treating injured people, taking into account at-risk individuals' needs; public health aspects of emergencies; mental health aspects of emergencies; national incident management, including coordination across federal, state, local, tribal, and international agencies; and protecting health care workers and first responders from workplace exposure during an emergency. Materials made for the program must be regularly tested and peer-reviewed by experts in the relevant fields. The Secretary and the Secretary of Defense must account for continuing-education requirements in public health and health care professions, and work with state, local, and tribal accrediting agencies and professional associations so students can get continuing-education credit for these courses. The Secretary may spread and teach these materials by whatever means the Secretary decides. This teaching may be done by federal public health, medical, or dental entities, appropriate schools, professional organizations, private accrediting organizations, and other nonprofits that meet criteria the Secretary sets. The Secretary may carry this out directly or through grants and contracts, and may make interagency agreements with other federal agencies. (b) Advice to the Federal Government Along with the working group under subsection (a), the Secretary must set up advisory committees to give expert recommendations supporting that group's work. The Secretary must create the National Advisory Committee on At-Risk Individuals and Public Health Emergencies, called the "Advisory Committee" here. It must recommend: how ready the health care system, including mental health care, is to serve at-risk individuals during public health emergencies; changes needed to health care and emergency medical service systems and protocols to meet at-risk individuals' special needs; and changes needed, if any, to the national stockpile under section 300hh–12 to protect the emergency health security of at-risk individuals. The Advisory Committee must be made up of federal officials suited to address the special needs of diverse at-risk population groups. It ends six years after June 12, 2002. The Secretary must also create the Emergency Public Information and Communications Advisory Committee, called the "EPIC Advisory Committee" here. It must make recommendations to, and report to, the Secretary on the best ways to communicate public health information about bioterrorism and other emergencies to the public. It must be made up of a diverse group of experts in public health, medicine, communications, behavioral psychology, and other fields the Secretary decides are appropriate. The Secretary must review its recommendations and make sure the right information reaches the public. It ends one year after June 12, 2002. (c) Expansion of Epidemic Intelligence Service Program The Secretary may create 20 extra officer positions in the Epidemic Intelligence Service Program, on top of the number offered in 2006, for people who agree to spend at least 2 years in the Career Epidemiology Field Officer program at a state, local, or tribal health department that serves a health professional shortage area, a medically underserved population, or a medically underserved or high-risk area the Secretary designates. (d) Centers for Public Health Preparedness and Response Through the CDC Director, the Secretary may award grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to universities, including accredited schools of public health, or other nonprofits, to establish or maintain a network of Centers for Public Health Preparedness and Response, called "Centers" here. To be eligible, an applicant must show how it will: coordinate with state, local, and tribal health departments and officials, health facilities, and health care coalitions, guided by the community's preparedness and response needs; prioritize evidence-based practices, including ways to reduce the spread of emerging infectious diseases; and use the awarded funds, including for the activities described below. Centers must use their funds to: identify, translate, and spread promising research into evidence-based practices for preparing for and responding to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats, including emerging infectious diseases and other emergencies, which may include related research; raise awareness of those practices and other relevant information among health and public health professionals, other stakeholders, and the public, including through training and training materials consistent with section 300hh–1(b)(2); build up relevant technology and analysis tools for public health and medical preparedness and response; expand preparedness and response work, including through public-private partnerships, drills, exercises, and training of public health experts; and give technical assistance and expertise, relying on evidence-based practices, to state, local, and tribal health departments and other groups referenced above. Subject to available funding, the Secretary must fund at least 10 Centers, spread fairly across the geographic regions of the United States. (e) Accelerated research and development on priority pathogens and countermeasures For pathogens that could be used in a bioterrorist attack, and other agents that could cause a public health emergency, the Secretary — considering the working group's recommendations under subsection (a) — must conduct, and fund through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements, research on: the epidemiology and biology of these pathogens; genome sequencing and other DNA or comparative analysis of priority pathogens, chosen by the Director of the National Institutes of Health with the working group, done together with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute; developing priority countermeasures; and other relevant research areas — all with consideration for the needs of children and other vulnerable populations. The Secretary must give funding priority to research on priority countermeasures. The Secretary must consider using the Department of Veterans Affairs' biomedical research and development capabilities, including its ties to health-professions universities, and may enter cooperative agreements with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs when that would help. A "priority countermeasure" is a drug, biological product, device, vaccine, vaccine adjuvant, antiviral, or diagnostic test that the Secretary decides is a priority to treat, identify, or prevent infection from a biological agent or toxin listed under section 262a(a)(1), or harm from another agent that could cause a public health emergency; or a priority to treat, identify, or prevent bad health effects or death that could result from administering one of those priority drugs, products, devices, or tests. (f) Authorization of appropriations For fiscal year 2007, Congress authorized: $5,000,000 for subsection (a) paragraphs (1) through (4); $7,000,000 for subsection (a)(5); $3,000,000 for subsection (c); and $31,000,000 for subsection (d). For fiscal year 2008 and every year after, Congress authorized whatever amount is necessary.