https://crsreports.congress.gov
May 6, 2020
Intelligence Community Support to Pandemic Preparedness and
Response
Introduction
Congressional interest in coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) includes understanding its origins, how it
evolved into a global pandemic, and the effectiveness of
measures to mitigate its impact on communities. Multiple
government agencies are involved in responding to these
queries both domestically and globally. The Intelligence
Community (IC), for example, supports disease surveillance
efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services’
(HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The use of surveillance in the COVID-19 response has
raised concerns among privacy and civil liberties advocates
about what “surveillance” means, and which government
agencies are responsible for implementing surveillance
programs. There are also questions some have raised about
what the United States knows about the origins of the
pandemic and when it first learned of its existence. This In
Focus describes and explains the IC’s specific role in
pandemic preparedness and response.
Key Non-Intelligence Surveillance Terms
Public Health Surveillance. “The ongoing, systematic
collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data
essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public
health practice.” The IC is generally not involved in public
health surveillance
Biosurveillance. “The process of gathering near real-time
biological data that relate to human and zoonotic disease
activity and threats to human or animal health, in order to
achieve early warning and identification of such health threats,
early detection and prompt ongoing tracking of health events,
and overall situational awareness of disease activity.” The IC
may be involved in supporting biosurveillance.
Intelligence Community Authorities to
Conduct Surveillance and Collection
The IC has statutory authority on the collection and
reporting of information relevant to infectious diseases,
especially in the foreign environment. The goal of the IC, as
stated in Executive Order (E.O.) 12333, United States
Intelligence Activities, is to provide “the President,
National Security Council, and Homeland Security Council
with the necessary information on which to base decisions
concerning the development and conduct of foreign,
defense, and economic policies, and the protection of
United States national interests from foreign security
threats.”
Foreign Intelligence
Intelligence related to foreign security threats is generally
understood as foreign intelligence, which E.O. 12333
defines as “information relating to the capabilities,
intentions, or activities of foreign governments or elements
thereof, foreign organizations, foreign persons, or
international terrorists.”
Although foreign intelligence is primarily collected in a
foreign environment, there are opportunities to collect
foreign intelligence and counterintelligence domestically.
The IC’s authority to collect foreign intelligence and
counterintelligence within the United States is subject to
policies and procedures approved by the Attorney General.
No foreign intelligence or counterintelligence may be
collected domestically for the purpose of indirectly
acquiring information about the domestic activities of U.S.
persons.
Medical Intelligence
Medical intelligence is a category of foreign intelligence
that the Department of Defense (DOD) defines as
“resulting from collection, evaluation, analysis, and
interpretation of foreign medical, bio-scientific, and
environmental information that is of interest to strategic
planning and to military medical planning and operations
for the conservation of the fighting strength of friendly
forces and the formation of assessments of foreign medical
capabilities in both military and civilian sectors.”
Medical intelligence related to a pandemic could include,
for example, intelligence on the foreign origins of, foreign
government reporting on, and responses to, a pandemic.
The IC role in collecting and assessing medical intelligence
may include corroborating information from secondary
sources and providing original reporting on matters that
may not be publicly available. Examples of medical
intelligence that could be collected by the IC include
information that might indicate efforts by a foreign
government to conceal or manipulate material regarding a
health emergency or evidence of efforts by terrorist groups
to weaponize biological agents to attack the U.S. homeland
or interests overseas. Medical intelligence could be used to
assess possible human, political, and economic impacts of
pandemics, such as threat to food and medical supply
chains and the readiness of foreign or U.S. military forces.
Intelligence Community Collection and
Reporting on Health Security
The National Intelligence Strategy of 2019 includes among
its mission objectives the collection and analysis of
information that provides indications and warning of events
or changing conditions of concern to U.S. national security.
The strategy identifies infectious disease as one of a
number of pressure points that can exacerbate migration
and refugee flows and contribute to international instability.
