A sign in County Kildare, Ireland. in March 2020. Epidemiologists around the world worked hard to try to stop big parties in the face of rising caseloads of what would come to be called COVID-19.
Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images
The US was not ready for the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. What can public health leaders and policymakers do to make sure we don’t face another winter of rampant disease?
Makoko neighbourhood in Lagos, initially founded as a fishing village.
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images
Military support for coronavirus responses must remain subordinate to public health expertise – and learn from previous epidemics.
During high-stress deadly epidemics, even well-trained responders can get caught up in behaviors that are more harmful than helpful.
AP Photo/Olivier Matthys
The high stress conditions of an outbreak can spread a dysfunctional culture among those working to fight it. A survey after the 2015 Ebola epidemic quantified the issue – and suggests a better way.
There have been ten Ebola outbreaks recorded from the DRC between 1976 and 2018 from different locations. This implies that the virus is widely spread.
Governments in West Africa and international aid agencies should help facilitate adoptions locally and provide better health care and education to support entire communities.
A health worker injects a woman with an Ebola vaccine during a trial in Monrovia, February 2 2015.
James Giahyue/Reuters
Was the Ebola vaccine 100% effective, or 100% lucky? The good money is on a percentage somewhere in between, but in truth, we will never know.
Two women walk in front of a billboard, which says “Ebola must go. Stopping Ebola is Everybody’s Business” in Monrovia, Liberia, January 15 2015.
UNMEER/Emmanuel Tobey
Along with better strategies to respond to outbreaks in human populations, we need a stronger focus on surveillance in animals to identify infectious diseases before they pose a risk to human health.
Even before the Ebola outbreak, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Libera were among the world’s poorest countries.
EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
Media coverage of the growing Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia has presented world audiences with apocalyptic predictions of ultimate death tolls and grisly imaginings of its spread to…
The risk to the Australian community from doctors and nurses returning from Ebola-affected countries is minimal.
EPA/ARIE KIEVIT
Governments have a duty to protect their citizens but the plan to impose mandatory detention on health-care workers being suggested by some Australian states is excessive and unwarranted. On Monday, the…