New coronaviruses armed with the capacity to cause severe human disease are becoming more frequent, raising the stakes for global preparedness, along with a need for a vaccine that could broadly protect against the most dangerous ones, such as SARS-CoV-2. To help
A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) comments on the “ineffectual and fragmented” US COVID-19 pandemic responses thus far and recommends eight steps to manage the ongoing crisis amid variant fatigue, inflation, and supply chain disruptions. CSIS,
After 2 years of meetings, research, and collaboration, the Influenza Vaccine Research & Development Roadmap (IVR) was published today. The project, which was created through a partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease
In its seventh report about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday made 15 recommendations around topics such as program integrity and preparedness for future public health emergencies. “GAO’s recommendations, if effectively implemented,
Thirty-two experts from 17 countries published a consensus statement today in JAMA Network Open to guide health leaders through COVID-19 pandemic recovery and prepare for future emergencies. The consensus statement emphasizes the importance of bolstering pandemic preparedness for future pandemics and promoting
Study identifies metrics tied to respiratory infection antibiotic overuse More than two thirds of antibiotics prescribed for respiratory tract infections at primary care practices within an academic health system were inappropriate, with unnecessary prescribing strongly linked to respiratory infections that almost never
Country delegates at the World Health Assembly (WHA) today came to a consensus on holding a special session in November to consider an international treaty on pandemic preparedness, with the goal of shoring up political commitment in the battle against infectious disease
Saudi Arabia reports fatal MERS case Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported a new MERS-CoV case, which involves a 36-year-old man who died from his infection. The man was from Hafr Al-Batin in the country’s northeast. An investigation found that
Phone interviews with key capacity managers at 53 US hospitals about preparedness for the 2017-18 flu epidemic revealed a lack of surge capacity, strained resources, and low prioritization of pandemic planning, according to a qualitative study today in JAMA Network Open. Researchers
In 2004 historian John M. Barry wrote the definitive book on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Between 1918 and 1920, 675,000 Americans, many of them previously healthy young adults, died from a novel H1N1 strain of flu as it swept across the