Disaster Declarations for Past Biological Incidents in the United States

Historically, biological incidents, such as past outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS; 2003), H1N1 influenza (2009), Zika virus disease (2016‒2017), and the 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak have not resulted in an emergency or major disaster declaration under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act). In contrast, the national-level response needs for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic prompted the President to make an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act to support large-scale biological incident response and recovery activities. To date, the only other instance of a President issuing an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act in response to an infectious disease event occurred in 2000 during the West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak response in New York and New Jersey.³ Readers are directed to the BIA for more information on federal emergency or disaster declarations made during past biological incidents. Further discussion of public health emergency declarations can be found in the Relevant Authorities and Legislation section below.