Meeting

Data's Role in Preventing the Next Pandemic

Monday, February 14, 2022
REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
Speaker
Rick A. Bright

Deputy Assistant Secretary and Office Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Presider

Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations

Over the past fifteen years, global health has been threatened by Ebola epidemics in West Africa, the emergence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the spread of Zika through the Americas,and the 2009 influenza pandemic. The tolls of each event have been exacerbated by inadequate data systems. Ongoing struggles to track the global spread of COVID-19 demonstrate the need to fix problems in existing surveillance for infectious diseases.

Top Stories on CFR

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Steven Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the collapse of the temporary ceasefire in Gaza and the future of the conflict between Israel and Hamas

Budget, Debt, and Deficits

After years of steadily increasing debt, federal spending has skyrocketed, taking U.S. debt to levels not seen since World War II.   

United States

Committed global action at every level of government, the economy, and society is needed to tackle such a complex, multifaceted challenge, and a growing awareness that time is running out should help to foster it at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai. But the real test will come after, when promises must be kept.