Exploring Lessons Learned from a Century of Outbreaks: Readiness for 2030: Proceedings of a Workshop (2019)
Chapter: Appendix B: Workshop Statement of Task
Appendix B
Workshop Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will plan a 1.5-day public workshop that will examine the lessons that have been learned and applied, and the world’s current readiness to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemic influenza and other potential novel diseases from a century of outbreaks. Workshop participants will reflect on the challenges of improving readiness; discuss how to move beyond barriers; assess how the latest advances in global, regional, and national governance structures, systems, and capacities to fight against the next influenza pandemic can make a difference; and explore areas that need more work, including immediate and short-term actions that will have the greatest impact on global health security by 2030.
Specifically, this workshop will feature invited presentations and discussions on topics including
- Recent progress achieved in monitoring global health security and pandemic preparedness at the national and global levels, including advances in developing national action plans stemming from the International Health Regulations and the Joint External Evaluation, building strong public health capacities that incorporate a One Health approach, and developing risk analysis and assessment tools to guide resource allocation;
- Critical challenges and opportunities in developing and evaluating medical countermeasures, including seasonal vaccines, a universal
- influenza vaccine, and novel diagnostics and therapeutics, and strategies to secure their adequate supply and distribution, particularly ensuring access to high-risk populations;
- Various methods and tools, such as effective emergency operations centers, surveillance systems, and sequencing technologies, to shorten the time between onset and detection, lab confirmation, and public communication of major disease outbreaks; and
- The ethical and operational challenges and opportunities for enabling meaningful coordination, cooperation and sharing of information and technological benefits among various stakeholders, including multilateral organizations, national governments, private sector, and civil society.
Workshop speakers and discussants will contribute perspectives from government, academia, and private and nonprofit sectors from the local to global levels.
