Foresight from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Science, Policy, Communication (COVID-SPC)

Introduction: COVID-19 has taught the world, once again, the painful lesson that the lack of preparedness for infectious disease pandemics is a tragic mistake. We can now foresee, with unfortunate certainty, that there will likely be additional infectious disease outbreaks, and even pandemics, having major impacts throughout society. To address these issues, the Institute on Science for Global Policy (ISGP) will organize and convene a three-conference FCP Program addressing the core scientific, policy, and communication (SPC) challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. An accurate understanding of these challenges needs to inform and shape the SPC decisions going forward. This FCP Program focuses on attaining the foresight needed to more effectively prepare for future disease outbreaks and pandemics. To achieve these goals, the critical SPC outcomes are not only identified and critiqued but also prioritized by highly credentialed subject-matter experts and leaders from scientific, private sector, policy, and communication communities. Success is viewed in terms of the impact of how credible scientific recommendations are incorporated into real-world governmental and private sector policy decisions and actions within the public writ large. Ultimately, the sustainability of public support for these decisions remains a critical test.

ISGP COVID-SPC Program Structure

• Science for scientific progress: formulating and implementing policies derived from an accurate understanding of the peer-reviewed results of credible scientific research that are accurately articulated and broadly endorsed with respect to advantages and potential risks;
• Science for statecraft: communicating the resultant, evidence-based options to governmental, private sector, and public advocacy leadership that accurately reflect the current scientific understanding needed to reach effective policy decisions and develop implementation strategies;
• Science for public understanding and accurate communication: motivating a widely respected, well-informed cross-section of societal leadership to candidly convey the practical information needed to promote sustained public confidence and support for the often controversial, real-world implementations of policies tailored to address specific pandemic challenges.

Key Participants

This endeavor can have substantive scientific credibility and significant policy impact based on the engagement of numerous widely respected scientific leaders, experienced policymakers, communication experts, public advocates, and the public writ large.

ISGP COVID-SPC Global Advisory Panel (GAP-COVID) 

• Dr. George Atkinson, Founder and Executive Director, Institute on Science for Global Policy (ISGP); former Science and Technology Adviser (STAS) to U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice

• Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association; former Secretary, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; former Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Dr. Peter Biggins, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Security Science & Technology, Imperial College London; Joint Systems Department of the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory
• Dr. Janet Martha Blatny, Director, Total Defence Division, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Norway; Chair NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Panel; Norwegian Panel Representative, NATO STO HFM Panel
• Dr. Christian Bréchot, Professor, University of South Florida, Tampa; President, Global Virus Network; former President of the French NIH (Inserm) and Institut Pasteur; former vice-president of the Institut Merieux
• Dr. James Breckenridge, 2nd Provost for the U.S. Army War College; former Dean of the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Sciences, at Mercyhurst University; former Executive Director of the Institute for Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst University
• Dr. Richard H. Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States of America; Laureate Professor of Public Health, Health Promotion Sciences & Community, Environment and Policy (EHS), Health Promotion Sciences Department, University of Arizona
• Dr. Deeph Chana, Professor of Practice, Imperial College Business School; Chair, Emerging and Disruptive Technology (EDT) Advisory Group, NATO; Co-Director: Institute for Security Science and Technology, Imperial College London; Co-Director, Centre for Financial Technology (FinTech), Imperial College Business School; Director, ThetaDot Ltd,; Senior Advisor and NEDSenior Advisor and NED, Synbiosys
• Dr. Nigel Clarke, Chief Laboratory Officer, Vice President of R&D, Quest Diagnostics
• Dr. Gavin A. Cloherty, Head, Infectious Disease Research, Abbott Diagnostics; Head, Pandemic Defense Coalition
• Dame Sally Davies, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge; U.K. Special Envoy, Antimicrobial Resistance; Co-convener, UN Inter-Agency Coordination Group on AMR; Founder, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); former Chief Medical Officer of England; former Chief Medical Adviser, Department of Health
• Mr. Fred Downey, former Vice President of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of the America National Security Division; former Senior Counselor and Legislative Aide for Defense and Foreign Affairs in the office of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman
• Dr. Linda Duffy, former U.S. Federal Government Senior Health Scientist Administrator at the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health; Special Volunteer to the Director in the Department of Health Human Services and National Institutes of Health at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; former Senior Scientific Advisor in the DHHS Office of the Secretary, within the Office of the National Coordinator, Division of Science Technology; Program Director, Division of Extramural Research National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• Dr. Tom Fingar, former United States Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and Chairman of the National Intelligence Council; Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University
• Dr. Claire M. Fraser, Director, and Professor, Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Chair of the Board of Directors and former President, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); former President and Director, The Institute for Genomic Research 
• Dr. Robert Gallo, Co-founder & International Scientific Advisor, Global Virus Network; Co-founder & Director, Institute of Human Virology (IHV); Professor of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology, Institute of Human Virology (IHV), University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
• Admiral Brett Giroir, Distinguished Visiting Executive, Leavitt Partners; former Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); former Director, Defense Sciences Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 
• Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine; Co-Director, Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development (CVD)
• Dr. Dean Jamison, Emeritus Professor, Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco; Emeritus Professor, Global Health, the University of Washington in Seattle; former Manager, Education Policy Division and Health, Nutrition, and Population Division, World Bank
• Dr. George Korch, Director, National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), Battelle National Biodefense Institute
• Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, Director, Division of Clinical Innovation at NCATS, NIH; former Director, Office of Biodefense Research Resources and Translational Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); former Associate Director, Anti-infectives, Wyeth; former Director, Antimicrobials, Dupont Pharmaceuticals
• Dr. Brett Leav, Head, Clinical Development for Public Health Vaccines, Moderna; former Clinical Program Director, Seqirus; former Senior Cluster Physician, Novartis Vaccines
• Mr. Terry Lierman, Founding partner of Summit Global Ventures, LLC; Former Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer; Former Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee
• Dr. Kirstin RW Matthews, Fellow for Science and Technology Policy, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Baker Institute Science & Technology Policy
• Dr. Jaykumar Menon, Chair and Co-Founder, Open Source Pharma; Senior Fellow, Harvard Global Health Institute; Visiting Scientist, Harvard School of Public Health; Research Fellow, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, based at McGill University
• Dr. Nelson Michael, Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Silver Spring, Maryland; former Deputy Commander, WRAIR; Professor of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland
• Ms. Vanessa Moeder, Sr. Director, Public and Global Health, Illumina; former Director, Strategic Marketing, Hologic, Inc.; former Strategy Consultant, Institute for Federal Health Care; former Global Marketing Manager, Ibis Biosciences, an Abbott Company
• Dr. David Moran, President of Technology International Partnerships, LLC; former President of the National Technology Transfer Center; former Director of Industrial Advanced Development & Industrial Outreach, Advanced Technology, Office of Naval Research; Past-Publisher of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, publications “American Scientist” and the “Chronicle of the New Researcher”
• Mr. Joseph Nimmich, former Deputy Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); former Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Civil and Commercial Group.; former Director of Maritime Surveillance and Security at Raytheon Corp; retired Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard
• Dr. Gerald (Gerry) Parker, Associate Dean for Global One Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; Director of the Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program within the Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government Service; Strategic Advisor for the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, AgriLife Research
• Ambassador Tom Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; former President of the Eurasia Foundation; former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs; former Boeing Senior Vice President for International Relations
• Dr. Rino Rappuoli, former Chief Scientist, Head of External R&D, GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines; Honorary Professor of Vaccinology, Imperial College, London; Extraordinary Professor, Molecular Biology, University of Siena
• Dr. Stephen Spann, Founding Dean, University of Houston College of Medicine; Vice-president for Medical Affairs, University of Houston; former Chief Medical Officer, Tawam Hospital (managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International); former Chairman, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; former Senior Vice-president and Dean of Clinical Affairs, Baylor College of Medicine
• Dr. Jim Tartaglia, Vice-President R&D, Development Head, Sanofi Pasteur
• Dr. Anders Vahlne, Professor of Clinical Virology in the Department of Laboratory Medicine (LABMED), H5, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden 
• Dr. Bryan Wells, North Atlantic Council (NAC) appointed Chief Scientist, responsible for: serving as Chair of the NATO Science and Technology Board (STB), acting as senior scientific advisor to NATO leadership, and leading the Office of the Chief Scientist at NATO Headquarters; former UK Ministry of Defence Head of S&T Policy, Strategic Research and International Engagement