Biosecurity Fundamentals: Pandemics
The world witnessed the severe humanitarian and economic repercussions of pandemic pathogens during COVID-19 crisis, and we remain dangerously unprepared for future pandemics.
With the rate of zoonotic pathogen spread increasing and rapid technological advances in synthetic biology and AI, there exists the possibility of far deadlier pandemics, but also new opportunities to defend against them.
This podcast is from the Biosecurity Fundamentals: Pandemics course, which covers technical and policy efforts to prevent, detect and respond to catastrophic pandemics.
Biosecurity Fundamentals: Pandemics
Nowcasting Epidemics of Novel Pathogens: Lessons from COVID-19
This paper discusses critical questions for gaining early situational awareness in an outbreak, using COVID-19 as an example. It highlights key queries about the pathogen, transmission modes, population vulnerability, and available medical countermeasures. The paper shows how timely answers to these questions can inform effective public health responses, resource allocation, and policy decisions, ultimately improving outbreak management.
Original text:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01278-w
Author(s):
Joseph T. Wu, Kathy Leung, Tommy T. Y. Lam, Michael Y. Ni, Carlos K. H. Wong, J. S. Malik Peiris & Gabriel M. Leung