Lessons from the Pandemic: Responding to Emerging Zoonotic Viral Diseases

ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Lessons from the Pandemic: Responding to Emerging Zoonotic Viral Diseases, organized by Drs. Linfa Wang, Sarah Catherine Gilbert and William E. Dowling. The conference will be held in Snowbird, Utah from April 10-13, 2022. Seventeen years after the SARS outbreak, the international scientific and non-scientific communities were still not prepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This conference will focus on the gaps identified from the COVID-19 pandemic and address needs for improved global preparedness to outbreaks. This program will cover topics on new approaches to both the technical and policy aspects of pandemic preparedness. The timing of a conference such as this is ideal and will allow for a very concentrated discussion on certain topics such as the unprecedented surge of scientific focus and government/business investment for COVID-19. Topics will include early warning systems to detect emerging zoonotic threats, rapid development and deployment of diagnostics, model systems, platforms for rapid development of countermeasures including vaccines and therapeutics, and manufacturing challenges for global deployment. It is anticipated that by building a program which focuses on both science and policy areas, that it will help facilitate a paradigm shift by bringing interdisciplinary groups together. Although the main focus for this program will be on coronaviruses, other high profile emerging infectious disease viral pathogens will be included for meaningful comparative analysis. Finally, the program will cover the importance of manufacturing during a global pandemic.