Emergency Pandemic Control Course

Rapidly increasing international trade and travel predictably increases the likelihood of rapid transmission of infectious diseases. The devastation caused by the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic and the worldwide alarm prompted by the 2004 SARS epidemic provide important insights into today’s concerns surrounding COVID-19. This course emphasizes objective investigation to identify evidence-based answers to critical questions, including identifying the infectious agent, the mode of transmission, incubation period, and effective modalities for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. This course also highlights how emergency pandemic control often requires deliberate intervention to address special ethical challenges: disease-associated racism, resistance to local and international cooperation, and extreme stress placed upon low-resource health systems.