SREL Reprint #3628

Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic

Nils Chr. Stenseth1, Guha Dharmarajan2, Ruiyun Li1, Zheng-Li Shi3, Ruifu Yang4, and George F. Gao5,6

1Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences,
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
2Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, United States
3CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens, Wuhan Institute of Virology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
4State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology
and Epidemiology, Beijing, China
5CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogen Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
6Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has been characterized by unprecedented rates of spatio-temporal spread. Here, we summarize the main events in the pandemic’s timeline and evaluate what has been learnt by the public health community. We also discuss the implications for future public health policy and, specifically, the practice of epidemic control. We critically analyze this ongoing pandemic’s timeline and contrast it with the 2002–2003 SARS outbreak. We identify specific areas (e.g., pathogen identification and initial reporting) wherein the international community learnt valuable lessons from the SARS outbreak. However, we also identify the key areas where international public health policy failed leading to the exponential spread of the pandemic. We outline a clear agenda for improved pandemic control in the future.

Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, epidemiology, SARS-CoV, public health

SREL Reprint #3628

Stenseth, N. C., G. Dharmarajan, R. Li, Z. L. Shi, R. Yang, and G. F. Gao. 2021. Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Public Health 9: Article 694705.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).