Prevent Epidemics Resource Library

How do local governments contribute to pandemic response? For PLOS Global Public Health, Resolve to Save Lives collaborated with colleagues at Center for Global Health Science & Security and Vital Strategies to assess government responsibilities, the timeline of response activities, challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic among members of the Partnership for Healthy Cities. Among the 25 participating cities, national authorities primarily led pandemic activities but local governments were crucial in risk communication and community coordination. Most activities occurred after COVID-19 confirmation, highlighting challenges in proactive preparedness; nearly all local authorities expressed a desire for greater involvement in future pandemic preparedness and response.

In a commentary for BMJ Global Health, Resolve to Save Lives takes lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes an updated understanding of pandemic preparedness. Moving forward, we must secure increased and sustained funding from governments, while enhancing technical capacities and operational excellence in public health systems worldwide. Strengthening our global health architecture demands a commitment from countries, effective governance, and responsible use of resources. We need strong, accountable global leadership and robust technical support, backed by substantial new funding and efficient financial mechanisms. Ultimately, success hinges on fostering collaboration, recognizing our interdependence, and establishing mutual accountability in our efforts.

There is an urgent need for sustained funding and coordinated global efforts to strengthen health security capacities and prevent future pandemics. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, experts from Resolve to Save Lives analyze critical lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting gaps in preparedness that led to millions of deaths, economic losses, and educational setbacks. We stress the importance of building core capacities—prevention, detection, and response—at local, national, and global levels, with particular attention to low-resource settings. We advocate for sustained investment over the next 5-10 years to address these health security gaps, emphasizing that effective global collaboration is the key to preventing future pandemics.

Pandemics are more than public health emergencies; they are multisectoral crises that touch every aspect of public and private life. Therefore, multisectoral coordination—especially by enabling stakeholders to share and coordinate information, resources and personnel—enables appropriate policy responses during crises. Writing in BMJ Global Health, experts at Resolve to Save Lives and our partners identify six low-income and middle-income countries that acted quickly to foster coordinated multisectoral collaboration in their COVID-19 response, which boosted preparedness and action and ensured that policy responses were equal to the magnitude of the crisis. Countries who have demonstrated extraordinary progress provide crucial lessons that should not be ignored as we build a global health architecture that facilitates multisectoral, interdisciplinary, sustainable coordination and cooperation.

Strict adherence to infection prevention and control measures, and timely implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions, can help prevent and control COVID-19. Writing in Emerging Infectious Diseases, experts at Resolve to Save Lives examine the role of superspreading events (SSEs) in the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, highlighting their potential to accelerate outbreaks and prolong transmission. We emphasize the importance of timely public health action, particularly in healthcare settings, to identify and manage these high-risk events. Understanding transmission dynamics and implementing strict infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols are critical to preventing future outbreaks.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Resolve to Save Lives collaborated with U.S. jurisdictions to create four digital solutions that enhance the efficiency of case investigation and contact tracing to reduce the spread of infectious diseases by enabling more precise outreach, timely interventions, and better confidentiality: Epi Viaduct, Epi Contacts, Epi Locator, and Epi Viewpoint. Epi Viaduct dramatically sped up the transfer of 7.4 million records from over 2.5 hours to under 1 minute. Epi Contacts improved contact elicitation, resulting in 18,700 contacts from 9,440 index cases. Epi Locator facilitated 134,410 searches with a 75% success rate. These technologies, while developed for COVID-19, can also be adapted for managing any communicable disease.

Engaging local governments in epidemic preparedness will strengthen global health security by ensuring better coordination between local and national authorities. Writing in PLOS Global Public Health, Resolve to Save Lives and partners explore local-level involvement in epidemic preparedness before the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, based on responses from 33 cities in the Partnership for Healthy Cities, shows that while national governments played a dominant role in preparedness, many cities conducted vital risk assessments and developed response plans. By incorporating local governments more actively in future preparedness efforts, we can better coordinate responses for stronger overall health security.