Learning COVID-19’s lessons to prepare for the future

September 21, 2022 – A new Lancet Commission report offers detailed policy recommendations aimed at reducing the dangers of COVID-19, forestalling the next pandemic, and enabling the world to proceed with goals of sustainable development, human rights, and peace.

Among the 40 co-authors of the report, published September 14, were three experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Joseph Allen, associate professor of exposure assessment science and director of the Healthy Buildings program; and Muhammad Pate, Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health; and K. Srinath Reddy, adjunct professor of epidemiology.

The report offered a comprehensive investigation, analysis, and response to COVID-19. The co-authors outlined practical steps to control and understand the pandemic; investments necessary to prepare for emerging infectious diseases by strengthening health systems and widening universal health coverage; and proposals aimed at strengthening cooperation among countries with the goal of improving the response to future pandemics, addressing climate change, and reversing setbacks in sustainable development caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the Lancet Commission report: The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic