Mitigating Future Respiratory Virus Pandemics: New Threats and Approaches to Consider

Abstract

Despite many recent efforts to predict and control emerging infectious disease threats to humans, we failed to anticipate the zoonotic viruses which led to pandemics in 2009 and 2020. The morbidity, mortality, and economic costs of these pandemics have been staggering. We desperately need a more targeted, cost-efficient, and sustainable strategy to detect and mitigate future zoonotic respiratory virus threats. Evidence suggests that the transition from an animal virus to a human pathogen is incremental and requires a considerable number of spillover events and considerable time before a pandemic variant emerges. This evolutionary view argues for the refocusing of public health resources on novel respiratory virus surveillance at human–animal interfaces in geographical hotspots for emerging infectious diseases. Where human–animal interface surveillance is not possible, a secondary high-yield, cost-efficient strategy is to conduct novel respiratory virus surveillance among pneumonia patients in these same hotspots. When novel pathogens are discovered, they must be quickly assessed for their human risk and, if indicated, mitigation strategies initiated. In this review, we discuss the most common respiratory virus threats, current efforts at early emerging pathogen detection, and propose and defend new molecular pathogen discovery strategies with the goal of preempting future pandemics.

Misinformation, Fears and Adherence to Preventive Measures during the Early Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Poland

“…The present study explored the knowledge on COVID-19 and adherence to preventive measures in adult Poles during the first phase of the pandemic in 2020. Considering that novel epidemics are plausible in the future [16,24,25], it is pivotal to learn from observations from the COVID-19 outbreak, understand the public's early reactions, and identify groups requiring additional efforts to communicate essential information regarding safety measures. In addition, the results of the present study provide a reference point for similar investigations conducted during later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

From Protein to Pandemic: The Transdisciplinary Approach Needed to Prevent Spillover and the Next Pandemic

“…The thousands of infections and deaths from Ebola, and the millions of infections and deaths from SARS-CoV-2, were potentially triggered by a single spillover each. Most international attention and funding have not been focused on these events per se, but on cataloging the pathogens circulating in nature prior to such an event [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] or, more critically, on detecting pathogens in high-risk animal and human communities after such an event [ 32 , 33 ]. Preventing spillover would surely be the ultimate pandemic prevention, but this would require focusing on the multiple processes that drive the spillover event.…”

Susceptibility of different cell lines to the novel canine coronavirus CCoV‐HuPn‐2018

“…RNA was extracted using the QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Inc., Valencia, CA) and screened with a real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) assay specific for the virus. 9 , 11 Virus culture was considered positive when the cycle threshold (Ct) 7 value was at least 2 points below the 0‐h inoculum and CPE was present.…”