File: Download
Author(s): John Holdren
From the author, John Holdren-
I attach the third installment of the work on pandemic preparedness and response conducted by the ad hoc subgroup of former members of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that I convened in March. This installment addresses management of public health data in pandemics; it’s embargoed until noon EDT tomorrow, Tuesday July 28. Its two predecessors, addressing pandemic stockpiles and contact tracing, are posted on the Subgroup’s website, http://adhocresponsegroup.org, as this one will be when the embargo ends.
The team Subgroup consists of Christine Cassel (UC San Francisco), Chris Chyba (Princeton), Susan Graham (UC Berkeley), Eric Lander (MIT and Harvard), Rick Levin (Yale), Ed Penhoet (UC Berkeley), William Press (U of Texas Austin), Maxine Savitz (National Academy of Engineering), Harold Varmus (Cornell Medical School), and myself. All of us were active in producing the six Obama PCAST studies between 2009 and 2016 germane to dealing with viral pandemics.
The Subgroup came together with the aim of drawing on insights from those reports—and from research and observations since—to develop recommendations on how to prepare for future waves of the COVID19 pandemic and other viral pandemics that will eventually follow. The Subgroup has not been looking at shorter-term issues, such as conditions for reopening the country; those are being addressed by many other groups, including the committee of the National Academies chaired by Moore Foundation President Harvey Fineberg.
The new document is being distributed, as the first two were, to Trump Administration pandemic officials; the Biden campaign, selected members of Congress, governors, and mayors; key science and health philanthropists; other opinion leaders on public health; and the media.
The members of the Subgroup are serving as individuals, not as representatives of their institutions. They are working on their own time; the effort has no sponsors and no budget, in order to maximize its independence.
Comments welcome.
The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.