Playbook for early response to high-consequence emerging infectious disease threats and biological incidents

This report is marked "Not for public distribution" but was released by Politico.

Executive summary:

The goal of the Playbook For High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents (Playbook) is to assist U.S. Government experts and leaders in coordinating a complex U.S. Government response to a high-consequence emerging disease threat anywhere in the world with the potential to cause an epidemic, pandemic, or other significant public health event, by providing a decision-making tool that identifies: (1) questions to ask; (2) agency counterparts to consult for answers to each; and (3) key decisions which may require deliberation through the Presidential Policy Directive (PPD)-1
process or its successor National Security Council process. The Playbook also includes sample documents that can be used for interagency meetings that need to be called at each stage. While each emerging infectious disease threat will present itself in a unique way, a consistent, capabilities-based approach to addressing these threats will allow for faster decisions with more targeted expert subject matter input from Federal departments and agencies.

This Playbook is also intended to complement the Biological Incident Annex (BIA) of the Federal Interagency Operational Plans as well as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Pandemic Influenza Crisis Action Plan (PANCAP).

This Playbook has two sections to assist with decision-making: (1) an international response rubric for emerging disease threats that start or are circulating in another country but not yet confirmed within United States territorial borders; and (2) a domestic response rubric drawn from the BIA and PAN CAP that addresses emerging disease threats within our nation's borders. Specific triggers for response actions and operational phases for both domestic and international emerging infectious disease threat incidents are outlined. Each section of this Playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels within the PPD-1 process or its successor National Security Council process.