Center for Health Security - Founders Pledge Research

### Related research

[**Safeguarding the future report** \\
Learn more](https://www.founderspledge.com/research/existential-risk-executive-summary)

The [Center for Health Security](http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/) (CHS) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health is a think tank at Johns Hopkins University which researches and advocates for improved biosecurity policy in the US and internationally.

### What problem are they trying to solve?

CHS works to reduce the risk of both natural and engineered pathogens. For most of human history, the greatest risk of mass fatalities has stemmed from natural pandemics. The poor health, deaths, and economic and political disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic show the scale of damage that pathogens can cause. Compared to the worst pandemics in history, however, COVID-19 is relatively mild. In the 1300s, the Black Death plague outbreak killed 30–50% of the European population.1 The 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ killed 50 million to 100 million people,2 more people than died in World War One. These events are outliers, but history is punctuated by episodes of mass death from disease outbreaks.

Improvements in biotechnology will bring great gains for human health, enabling us to cure genetic diseases, create new vaccines, and make other important medical advances. However, biotechnology will also allow humans to modify the features of pathogens. For example, Figure 1 shows that the cost of gene synthesis has fallen by many orders of magnitude in recent years.

**Figure 1.**

![CHS_Fig 1.png](https://dkqj4hmn5mktp.cloudfront.net/CHS_Fig_1_a4f8a75a75.png)

Source: Carlson, On DNA and transistors.3

Cheaper and more accessible biotechnologies like gene synthesis could potentially greatly increase the probability of Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBRs) — global catastrophes involving biological agents.4 Researchers have, accidentally or otherwise, demonstrated the ability to design pathogens with dangerous new features.5

CHS is at the forefront of efforts to bring increased attention to GCBRs, which are the focus of one third of CHS’s work.6 The remainder of CHS’s work focuses on other biosecurity and pandemic preparedness issues, many aspects of which are likely to help reduce the risk of GCBRs.

### What do they do?

CHS focuses on reducing biological risk by:7

- Conducting research and analysis on major health security issues.
- Engaging with scholars, the policymaking community and the private sector.
- Advocating for stronger health security policies at the local, national and international level.
- Convening working groups, conferences and congressional seminars, including interviews and op-eds in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The New Yorker, Vox, UKTelegraph, The Hill, Science, Nature and The Atlantic.8
- Educating the next generation of scholars, practitioners and policymakers in the field.

#### Past work on Global Catastrophic Biological Risks

CHS’s main projects with

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