How Do We Build Resilience Against the Next Pandemic?
We asked some of the world’s leading public health experts and scientists. Here’s what they had to say:
“To be better prepared for the next pandemic, we need to strengthen—and in some cases rebuild—the entire global health security architecture. We need a stronger evidence base to support decision-making, we need to strengthen collaborations and information sharing, and we need to more effectively translate early warning into action.”
Rebecca Katz, Professor and Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center
“We must maintain a state of readiness and look at pandemic preparedness as an active and ongoing process—not an afterthought, not a static state, and not as a ‘once-in-a-century’ problem.”
Syra Madad, Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at NYC Health + Hospitals
“It is simple: we must regard our pandemic preparedness and response, everything from basic research to clinical interventions to predictive models, as basic infrastructure and invest in it heavily and sustainably.”
Angela Rasmussen, Research Scientist, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan
“To build resilience against the next pandemic, we need to invest in basic sciences. The remarkable development and future improvement of vaccines rely on basic research on molecular biology, material science, virology, structural biology, and immunology.”
Akiko Iwasaki, Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
“The pandemic, and our many shortcomings, have highlighted the need for coordinated efforts that include early detection through epidemic intelligence, diagnostic test development, strong epidemiology and public health response, along with bench science for vaccine and therapeutic development. Each of these things alone are important but aren’t effective without true interdisciplinary collaboration.”
Larry Madoff, Editor of ProMED and Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts
“Unfortunately, it has taken the horrendous global impact of COVID-19 to underscore how critical it is for the world to develop the capacity to prevent or at least respond rapidly and effectively to future pandemics. This means better science, better modeling, more innovations in vaccine and treatment opportunities, and a level of global cooperation we haven’t seen before.”
Irwin Redlener, Director, Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative (PRRI), Senior Research Scholar, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), Columbia University
“The risk of new pandemics grows every year as we expand our global impact and connectivity on the planet. If we’re going to come out of this Pandemic Era, we need to shift our mindset from responding as a new disease begins to outsmarting them, finding out where the unknown viruses are lurking, reducing high-risk activities like deforestation and the wildlife trade in these emerging infectious diseases hotspots, and designing vaccines and drugs that target both known and unknown pathogens. Multidisciplinary centers like the CEID are exactly how we do this.”
Peter Daszak, President, EcoHealth Alliance
“We need to be more agile and have preexisting strategies in place so we can rapidly respond effectively to emerging imperfect evidence. We also need to take a hard look at our response over the last year, admit several severe mistakes were made, learn from them, and ensure we won’t repeat them again once the next pandemic comes around.”
Kristian Andersen, Principal Investigator, Anderson Lab, The Scripps Research Institute
“The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of having research capacity in place as a critical element of pandemic preparedness. The greatest priority should be on building health research capacity in low- and middle-income countries where the health burdens and threats are greater and research capacity is often lower than in higher-income countries. Basic pillars of capacity are needed to establish a robust, responsive research environment. Foremost among these is human capacity. Investigators trained in research topics such as HIV and tuberculosis have emerged as leaders in their country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.”
Peter Kilmarx, Deputy Director, Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health
“We must detect outbreak threats early, wherever they occur, and have robust systems to contain them. To achieve this, we must prepare for outbreaks by working seamlessly across government sectors and create new, enduring health security partnerships with academia, nonprofits, the private sector and communities.”
Mohammed Lamorde, Head of Global Health Security Programme at the Infectious Diseases Institute, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University
“Resilience for future pandemics is complex and multifaceted. [We] must recognize how 21st century forces and social determinants including war, political collapse, urbanization, together with climate change [drive] disease. Also, we must recognize how we must expand global vaccine capacity by building infrastructure and training human capital, especially in low- and middle-income countries. And finally, we must recognize how a rising tide of antivaccine and antiscience activities now undermines current progress. Now is a good time for a center devoted to emerging pathogens.”
Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine; Codirector of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics
“For the first time in history, we have the tools to take the pandemic threat off the table. It’s an audacious goal that will take focus, resources, and most importantly a commitment to global equitable access.”
Rajeev Venkayya, President, Takeda Global Vaccines, Board Member, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation
“We need to start thinking in terms of ONE health. Human health is inextricably linked to the health of other species and our environment.”
Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA
CEO/Founder, JUST HUMAN PRODUCTIONS
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine & Infectious Diseases, NYU School of Medicine & Bellevue Hospital