With global COVID-19 cases set to surpass 50 million and spiking across the United States and Europe, world leaders are gathering in a series of international summits to discuss what they will do to stop the pandemic. The current crisis demands urgent and united action as a global community, as no country will be safe from the virus until every country is safe.
But this pandemic didn’t have to happen, and the next one won’t wait. As they fight the current battle, leaders must also take steps NOW to bolster our global and national defenses against emerging pandemic threats before they materialize.
Synthesizing lessons of what has gone wrong in COVID-19 and in previous outbreaks and epidemics, the Pandemic Action Network’s Global Health Security Architecture Working Group has identified six priorities for international action to ensure the world is better prepared for the next pandemic. These are captured in our brief Pandemic Action Agenda paper released last month.
Pandemic Action Agenda Series
Now we’re pleased to release a series of Pandemic Action Agenda papers which expand on each of the six priority areas for action:
Pandemic Action Agenda Summary: Calling on world leaders to strengthen the global health security architecture and governance and make the world better prepared for pandemics.
Global Health R&D: Bolstering the global research and development architecture for health security.
Outbreak Detection: Enhancing the availability and use of reliable data and early warning systems to drive more effective preparedness and response to outbreaks.
Pandemic Financing: Mobilizing sufficient funding for national pandemic preparedness and global response efforts.
Country Capacity: Enhancing countries’ capacity to prevent and respond to outbreaks through technical assistance and improving health security infrastructure.
Pandemic Supplies: Solving supply chain bottlenecks and ramping up regional and local production and delivery to ensure health workers everywhere have access to sufficient quality personal protective equipment (PPE) and other frontline health supplies.
Metrics and Evaluation: Increasing accountability through more effective mechanisms to assess—and fill gaps in—country preparedness levels. COMING SOON
What You Can Do
Advocate for action. Help us deliver the Pandemic Action Agenda directly to key decision-makers in your country and international organizations, and press them to take action on these issues. Contact Naomi Komuro at [email protected] and let us know who you can reach (or we can give you ideas!).
Spread the word. Share the #PandemicActionAgenda on your social media channels and through other communications within your networks to help build us momentum to prioritize global preparedness. Find the social toolkit here.
Hold leaders to account. Sustained advocacy and communications are essential to avoid repeating the cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to deadly outbreaks. Follow up with decision-makers through emails, meetings or events, and ask them share what they are doing to respond to the Pandemic Action Agenda—and let us know what you learn to inform our ongoing advocacy efforts.
Every effort we make in the fight against COVID-19 should leave a longer-term legacy that better prepares humanity to more effectively deal with outbreaks and pandemics and—when possible—to prevent them at the source.
Want to learn more? Please contact Carolyn Reynolds, Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network at [email protected]
