Pandemic Preparedness
H5N1 Influenza
The consequences of letting avian influenza run rampant in US poultry
The secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., has suggested allowing the unmitigated spread of HPAI in turkeys and chickens to identify surviving birds—a sentiment supported by Brooke Rollins, secretary of the USDA, which, along with state-level departments of agriculture, has jurisdiction over animal disease outbreaks (1). This approach would be dangerous and unethical. Allowing a highly lethal, rapidly evolving, and contagious virus to run a natural course of infection in poultry would lead to unnecessary suffering of poultry and put other susceptible animals on and near affected farms at risk. It would prolong exposure for farmworkers, which could increase viral adaptation and transmission risks for poultry, other peridomestic animals, and humans. Erin M. Sorrell, Michelle Kromm, Gigi Gronvall, Andy Pekosz, Meghan Davis.Science389,27-29(2025)
Reflections on COVID-19
The Scientific Response to COVID-19 and Lessons for Security
While many aspects of the response to the pandemic were wanting, the extraordinary global mobilisation of the scientific community is a source of hope. Gronvall, G. K. (2020). Survival, 62(3), 77–92.
Diagnostic Testing
Proposal for a national diagnostics action plan for the United States
Gigi Kwik Gronvall, Sujeet B. Rao, Susan Van Meter, Adam Borden, Tom Inglesby (2023). Our recommendations include establishing pre-event contracts; ensuring rapid access to clinical samples; creating a permanent public–private testing coordinating body to allow for rapid information sharing and improved cooperation among the USG, test developers, and clinical laboratories; and accelerating testing rollout at the beginning of an event—and thus, the effective public health management of a disease crisis.
COVID-19 Testing and a Path Out of the Pandemic
Gigi Gronvall, in Clinical Chemistry, Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 27–29 Discussion of what were then the current demands for testing and the need to anticipate what testing needs are likely for the future, and plan for them.
With funding form Lyda Hill Philanthropies and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, I led the development of the COVID-19 Testing Toolkit, which was incorporated into the famous Hopkins dashboard. When information was lacking from the federal government, it provided information about the different types of COVID-19 tests with emergency use authorization (EUA) as well as what testing services were available, how they worked, and what was known about their accuracy. The Toolkit provided resources for employers or decision-makers to develop testing strategies to fit their testing needs. The tool is now archived.
Medical Countermeasures
Medical
Ensuring an Effective Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (Consensus study 2021)
Together with Alan Leshner, I co-chaired this study that examined the interagency group known as the Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE), which is the nation's sole coordinating body, responsible for ensuring end-to-end medical countermeasure preparedness and response. Four priority areas of improvement emerged from committee deliberations: (1) articulating PHEMCE's mission and role and explicating the principles guiding PHEMCE's operating principles and processes, (2) revising PHEMCE operations and processes, (3) collaborating more effectively with external public and private partners, and (4) navigating legal and policy issues.