Policy and Science for Global Health Security: Shaping the Course of International Health

Abstract

The global burden of infectious diseases and the increased attention to natural, accidental, and deliberate biological threats has resulted in significant investment in infectious disease research. Translating the results of these studies to inform prevention, detection, and response efforts often can be challenging, especially if prior relationships and communications have not been established with decision-makers. Whatever scientific information is shared with decision-makers before, during, and after public health emergencies is highly dependent on the individuals or organizations who are communicating with policy-makers. This article briefly describes the landscape of stakeholders involved in information-sharing before and during emergencies. We identify critical gaps in translation of scientific expertise and results, and biosafety and biosecurity measures to public health policy and practice with a focus on One Health and zoonotic diseases. Finally, we conclude by exploring ways of improving communication and funding, both of which help to address the identified gaps. By leveraging existing scientific information (from both the natural and social sciences) in the public health decision-making process, large-scale outbreaks may be averted even in low-income countries.

The Epidemic Failure Cycle hypothesis: Towards understanding the global community’s recent failures in responding to an epidemic

“…Furthermore, and related to the already mentioned narrow scope of inquiries, generally acknowledged frameworks for the evaluation of response attempts are missing, which makes it difficult to apply results to other settings and outbreaks [ 19 ]. It has also been shown that relevant research on infectious diseases and health security issues often does not reach political decision-makers [ 20 ].…”

Epidemisches Versagen: Warum Staaten und internationale Organisationen wiederholt bei der Bekämpfung von Epidemien scheitern

“…Es hat sich zudem gezeigt, dass relevante Forschungsergebnisse zu Infektionskrankheiten und Fragen der Gesundheitssicherheit oft nicht bei Personen mit politischer Entscheidungskompetenz ankommen (Berger et al. 2019 ).…”

A Workflow of Integrated Resources to Catalyze Network Pharmacology Driven COVID-19 Research

“…The pandemic of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (also commonly referred to as COVID-19 pandemic by the name of the disease it induces) put a spotlight on the need for mechanisms that can rapidly identify and integrate relevant information to give a fighting chance to the medical and research community. The Ebola and Zika outbreaks presented similar challenges, and significant advances have been made in the past years in terms of digital, laboratory, and epidemiological techniques [1]- [3]. Although numerous resources covering many aspects of pertinent biomedical research have been developed and made publicly available, e.g.…”