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Author: davidensor

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National Defense Magazine

7/30/2020
By Stew Magnuson

iStock photo

Research into pandemics and diseases sponsored by DARPA early in the last decade is now paying off in the fight against the novel coronavirus, the leader of the agency said July 30.

“We have some examples here around COVID-19 where the investments that DARPA made 10, 15 years ago are ones now at the forefront of providing both interventions, treatments, diagnostics and other ways we're going to get out of this mess,” Peter Highnam, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, told reporters.

DARPA does not currently have any vaccine programs, but one that wrapped up around 2013 turned out to have a big impact on today’s efforts to defeat the pandemic, he said in a talk organized by George Washington University's Project for Media and National Security.

Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics, or ADEPT, focused on rapidly identifying pathogens, developing vaccines and quickly ramping up production.

“The nucleic acid vaccines that we see today being discussed certainly have strong roots in that work,” he said. Such vaccines inject genetic material such as RNA and DNA into live hosts.

The Rapid Vaccine Assessment program finished its work in 2017, but also turned out to be a valuable seed DARPA planted, he said.

The program produced an artificial immune system technology to help organizations or companies determine which vaccines to pursue, or not pursue so they can “trim down that early part of the pipeline,” Highnam said.

“We have been in this business and this type of research before with the specific goal of pandemic prevention,” he added. “It's really good to see research paying off this way and to be so valuable."

Meanwhile, the ongoing Pathogen Prevention program has sought the means to help warfighters heading to regions where there might be unknown pathogens.

“How do we protect those people health-wise before we go there?" he asked. "How do you rapidly give them something — either as a prophylaxis or something that's a prevention mechanism? A vaccine, ideally, but those take as we know a long time to make sure they're safe and efficacious."

The answer being pursued by DARPA and other organizations is monoclonal antibodies, which are used to detect microorganisms that cause diseases.

“Can we detect the appropriate antibodies? Can we put them into you the individual, or have the individual generate the antibodies on demand to provide a level of protection or treatment?” he asked.

While these questions have been posed since the program kicked off nearly eight years ago, the research has pivoted to look specifically at COVID-19, he said. The research may help identify exposure to the virus earlier, he added.

As for the supply chain problem, DARPA’s Make-It program has looked into rapidly manufacturing medications solely from U.S.-based materials in order to mitigate dependence on foreign suppliers. That initiative is not specifically focused on COVID-19, but is looking at domestically making common antibiotics and other supplies used in intensive care units.

Highnam said the tale of what DARPA has accomplished — the wins and successes — is told through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the patents that have been filed there.

“Some of this story is clear and it's laid out there,” he added.

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Other countries are taking note as the Beijing government breaks its promise.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a sweeping effect across the Indo-Pacific region, but ultimately the most disruptive security threat to that vast area may turn out to be China’s strongarm moves against Hong Kong, says the head of the U.S. command for that region. Adm. Phil Davidson, USN, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, specifically cited the Hong Kong crackdown as having a greater effect on security over that hemisphere of the globe.

Speaking at a media roundtable, Adm. Davidson said that other nations are alarmed by China breaking its promise to allow Hong Kong to keep its economic and political systems until 2049. “China’s reneging on its 50-year agreement to maintain Hong Kong’s political structure has sent a chill across the entire region,” he declared. “It certainly vacates the idea of ‘one country, two systems’ as a promise from China is totally undermined by China’s activities.

“Across the region, whether it’s a first island chain nation or a close neighbor like [South] Korea or as far away as Australia, it really sends a chill with the idea that a nation with a closed and authoritarian internal order is willing to undermine its own promises in order to extend that closed and authoritarian order elsewhere,” he pointed out. “That has to be particularly alarming for everyone.”

Adm. Davidson noted that the objection to China’s moves is not an attempt to contain China. The nations of the region are concerned about the Middle Kingdom’s efforts to supplant the rules-based international order, and that is the focus of efforts by the United States and its allies. The United States considers China its biggest strategic challenge.

And the Hong Kong move, along with territorial declarations in the South China Sea, are a part of China’s long-term strategy that seems to be accelerating. Adm. Davidson offers that the COVID-19 pandemic is having significant effects across the region, but none may be more significant than China’s exploitation of it. “They are using COVID-19 to take advantage of the timing and opportunity that it presents,” he stated. This includes squeezing other nations, such as Australia, that have tried to examine closely how China handled the pandemic.

“Every democratic nation in the region is watching what’s happening in Hong Kong and worrying about their own situation,” the admiral continues. “Proximity plays a reason in everybody’s calculation across the first island chain.”

These actions are increasing concern in Taiwan and other nations that seem to be targets of Chinese moves. China’s activities are part of an increased aggression designed to further China’s aims. The admiral described these as “a whole-of-party effort to coerce and corrupt the idea of a free and open Pacific.

“They believe that Asia is not just for Asians,” Adm. Davidson declared. “They believe that Asia is for China, and they are starting to advance that idea at a quicker rate."

 

The Project for Media and National Security is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Additional support from The George Washington University, and gifts from CNA and The MITRE Corporation.

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