Biosecurity newsletters you should subscribe to
TL;DR
I searched for other lists of biosecurity newsletters specifically and didn’t find one that suited my needs, so I made one! Please leave a comment with any other newsletters that I missed so that I can add them. I hope you find something useful in this list.
[Edit: Added the recommendations from the comments]
Newsletters
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (CHS) → subscribe here
Health Security Headlines (also from CHS) → subscribe here
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) → subscribe here
The Association for Biosafety and Biosecurity (ABSA)→ subscribe here (scroll to the bottom)
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) → subscribe here
Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)→ do not recommend subscribing as it is very narrowly biosafety oriented and is sometimes poorly referenced.
CBW Events (daily reports from Bioweapons Convention meetings) → subscribe here
SynBioBeta (@Tessa usually skims this one)
- Force of Infection (@Tessa has recently been skimming this one)
A list of biosecurity policy recourses is here.
Comments
I sourced a lot of these from recommendations by Caitlin Walker, as well as from looking through various posts by Chris Bakerlee and Tessa Alexanian. Please don’t hesitate to point out any links that are broken, comment about the relative quality of the above newsletters, or comment with any newsletters that I have missed. Thank you!
A few I’d add:
CBW Events (daily reports from Bioweapons Convention meetings) → subscribe here
You might also find it useful to keep up with developments in biotechnology, for which I’d point you at:
The Century of Biology
Codon
SynBioBeta (I usually skim this one)
Decoding Bio (as of 2024, probably the best one)
There are a lot number of interesting public health and epidemiology newsletters as well; I don’t feel like I have an amazing recommendation here, though I’ve recently been skimming Force of Infection
Awesome thanks I will add them!
A few more you might share:
Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction mailing list
Biological Security (Weekly Updates) from Parlimentarians for Global Action
Thanks for sharing! For anyone wondering how to subscribe to newsletters without filling your email inbox, you can do the following:
use Gmails filter function “skip the inbox” , and filter into newsletter folder
use killthenewsletter to turn newsletters into an rss feed, and use and rss feed to keep track of things you’re interested in reading about
Thank you for this really helpful tip!
A new biosecurity-relevant newsletter (which me and Anemone put together) is GCBR Organization Updates. Every few months, we’ll ask organizations who are doing impactful work to reduce GCBRs to share their current projects, recent publications, and any opportunities for collaboration.
Just wanted to say thank you for going to the effort of compiling this. I have now subscribed to a bunch and created an email filter!
Of course! Happy to help :)
Thanks for sharing! If I were only interested in subscribing to 1-4, which would you recommend?
That depends on your primary interest in biosecurity. If it is more policy-oriented then maybe the Johns Hopkins or the BWC ones. If you are more interested in epidemiology then maybe the Pandora Report? If you are more interested in technological developments then newsletters 13-15 might be a better fit. These are just loose suggestions.
Thank you!
I would also recommend the Pandemic Action Network newsletter—sign up here.
For Podcasters, I really like the Hear this idea podcast :3
There are other lists of lists with podcasts so I wanted to keep it to just newsletters. However, I will definitely check out the podcast thank you!