What will the next five years look like?
Project plan
Background
Since the start of 2021, accelerated COVID-19 transmission has been reported from many parts of the world. Countries are implementing ‘all-out’ approaches to bend the exponential surge of cases by re-introducing and tightening multiple public health and social measures. Although the record-breaking speed of vaccine development has allowed vaccine rollout within a year of identification of the pandemic virus, uncontrolled outbreaks have given rise to multiple virus variants, in some instances with increased transmissibility.
Eighteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic, we are at a pivotal point; but what do we see and where do we go from here? To answer these questions, WHO is hosting a series of consultations convening world leaders and influencers from a variety of disciplines to discuss the future, look at global trends and build consensus on the collective actions that the global community can take to mitigate the ongoing and anticipated risks of COVID-19 and other infectious threats.
Objectives
The aims of this initiative are to (i) facilitate a global debate around plausible scenarios; (ii) identify threats, opportunities, choices, and innovative solutions to strengthen epidemic and pandemic preparedness; and (iii) shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to address infectious threats.
Methodology
Timeline
