Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response

About Volume 2

New modeling for DCP4 suggests more than a 20 percent probability in the next decade of another pandemic with mortality comparable to COVID-19. This Volume provides practical guidance for countries to prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics. Drawing on COVID-19 lessons, it identifies key priorities to build resilient systems that protect lives and economies through evidence-based national and regional actions.

Early chapters focus on prevention—reducing zoonotic risks, strengthening biosafety measures, improving early detection systems, and rapidly characterizing and containing outbreaks. Other chapters discuss targeted public health measures and broader public health and social measures to curb transmission. Core health system investments receive particular attention, especially oxygen systems, emergency care, and vaccine delivery infrastructure that serve both routine and pandemic needs. Later chapters address medical countermeasures, proposing prearranged financing and decentralized manufacturing to accel­erate deployment and reduce disparities.

Finally, the volume presents a comprehensive framework for pandemic financing that spans the entire pandemic cycle, emphasizing the need for timely, adequate, and effective financial resources. The framework is designed to support policy makers in countries at all income levels and provides a guide to appropriate financing tools for each stage of a pandemic.