Next Time Around: Federal Recommendations for Improving Pandemic Response

The government response to COVID-19 has met with much criticism from lack of preparedness, to organizational missteps and poor communication. As advisors to the Secretary of Health & Human Services, the National Biosecurity Science Board has held public meetings and issued reports suggesting what lessons we have learned and what can be done better for the next pandemic. Among their suggestions are: increased support for telehealth, required disaster training for all health professionals, improved electronic reporting and data collection, streamlined communications, building trust, battling misinformation, recognizing and not increasing health disparities that are the result of structural racism, wastewater surveillance, investments in OneHealth biosurveillance, improve and expand home testing, increase ability for novel disease testing, cross-jurisdictional license recognition, and employ artificial intelligence to help predict disease emergence. Particular attention needs to be paid to focusing on the needs of children, the elderly, those with a disability, and rural residents. This presentation will review the recommendations as an approach for improving pandemic preparation, all of which emphasize a communitarian approach to public health.