Pandemics – overview (extract Global Catastrophic Risk report 2022)

The world has learned much about pandemics from COVID-19, but there is a serious risk that the emergence of yet another new infectious disease in humans will cause a major outbreak or pandemic. The best means to mitigate such an event is to ensure healthy populations and develop public health and healthcare systems. Many of the key factors that affect risk levels are scientific in nature, but there are other key factors that are non-scientific. Here we discuss risk scenarios and risk factors. Authors: David Heymann, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Swee Kheng Khor.