Learning the Right COVID Lessons for Public Health Strategy

Abstract: COVID-19 has revealed serious gaps in public health preparedness. Gigi Gronvall will focus on some that need to be addressed immediately, including in diagnostic testing, medical countermeasure development, attribution of biological disease events, and One Health, and will discuss the research laboratory oversight needed for security and safety.

Bio: Dr. Gigi Gronvall is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an immunologist by training. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has led the Center's ongoing efforts to track the development and marketing of molecular and antigen tests and serology tests, as well as the development of national strategies for COVID-19 serology (antibody) tests and SARS-CoV-2 serosurveys in the United States. She also has written about the scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the contested origin of SARS-CoV-2, and the implications for national and international security. Dr. Gronvall is the author of Synthetic Biology: Safety, Security, and Promise. In the book, she describes what can be done to minimize technical and social risks and maximize the benefits of synthetic biology, focusing on biosecurity, biosafety, ethics, and US national competitiveness—important sectors of national security. Dr. Gronvall is also the author of Preparing for Bioterrorism: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Leadership in Biosecurity.