Planning for the next pandemic begins with acknowledging what we did wrong for COVID-19. As the situation has calmed, experts are weighing in on what we did, and didn't do, as the months unfolded. I've distilled and organized their comments from the medical literature and webinars. Several of the opinions are from Preventing the Next Pandemic: New Tools for Global Surveillance, which the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health held for journalists October 17, 2022.
Next time, we should:
1. Recognize the field of ethics as practical, not just an academic discipline.
Determining the 'right' course of action in many circumstances proved more vexing and controversial than solving the technical challenges, such as developing vaccines and treatments, wrote Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues, in The New England Journal of Medicine ("What COVID Has Taught the World About Ethics").
To continue reading, go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.