Bøker av National Academy of Medicine

While the world continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, novel influenza viruses persist as a constant pandemic threat. The global response to COVID-19 has pushed the boundaries on what is possible for rapid pandemic response in several areas, including vaccine research, development, manufacturing, equitable distribution, allocation, and administration. If well understood and sufficiently adapted, these actions could be applied to future pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccine preparedness efforts. However, developing and delivering these more effective vaccines to meet the demand goes beyond simply technical challenges and includes issues across governance, financing, research, supply chain, and public engagement. To address these challenges, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual public workshop in May of 2021 to discuss the emerging evidence on unprecedented actions related to COVID-19 that could inform and advance pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccine preparedness efforts and subsequent response. This Proceedings of a Workshop provides a high-level summary of the presentations and discussions that occurred during the workshop.

Influenza viruses, both seasonal and pandemic, have the potential to disrupt the health and well-being of populations around the world. The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and prior public health emergencies of international concern illustrate the importance of global preparedness and coordination among governments, academia, scientists, policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and the public to address the threat of pandemic influenza. These health emergencies have revealed opportunities to enhance global vaccine infrastructure, manufacturing, distribution, and administration. Globally Resilient Supply Chains for Seasonal and Pandemic Influenza Vaccines outlines key findings and recommendations to bolster vaccine distribution, manufacturing, and supply chains for future seasonal and pandemic influenza events. This report addresses the challenges of manufacturing and distributing vaccines for both seasonal and pandemic influenza, highlighting the critical components of vaccine manufacturing and distribution and offering recommendations that would address gaps in the current global vaccine infrastructure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fragility of the global system of preparedness and response to pandemics and the fragmentation of our research and development ecosystem. The pandemic has provided a disruptive moment to advance new norms and frameworks for influenza. It also has demonstrated how innovative global public-private partnerships and coordination mechanisms can lead to rapid successes in viral vaccine research, manufacturing, and risk pooling. Countering the Pandemic Threat Through Global Coordination on Vaccines identifies ways to strengthen pandemic and seasonal influenza global coordination, partnerships, and financing. This report presents seven overarching recommendations for how the urgent influenza threat should be conceptualized and prioritized within the global pandemic preparedness and response agenda in the future.

The global response to COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of vigilance and preparedness for infectious diseases, particularly influenza. There is a need for more effective influenza vaccines and modern manufacturing technologies that are adaptable and scalable to meet demand during a pandemic. The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines has demonstrated what is possible with extensive data sharing, researchers who have the necessary resources and novel technologies to conduct and apply their research, rolling review by regulators, and public-private partnerships. As demonstrated throughout the response to COVID-19, the process of research and development of novel vaccines can be significantly optimized when stakeholders are provided with the resources and technologies needed to support their response. Vaccine Research and Development to Advance Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Preparedness and Response focuses on how to leverage the knowledge gained from the COVID-19 pandemic to optimize vaccine research and development (R&D) to support the prevention and control of seasonal and pandemic influenza. The committee's findings address four dimensions of vaccine R&D: (1) basic and translational science, (2) clinical science, (3) manufacturing science, and (4) regulatory science.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the world's preparedness for a respiratory virus event. While the world has been combating COVID-19, seasonal and pandemic influenza remain imminent global health threats. Non-vaccine public health control measures can combat emerging and ongoing influenza outbreaks by mitigating viral spread. Public Health Lessons for Non-Vaccine Influenza Interventions examines provides conclusions and recommendations from an expert committee on how to leverage the knowledge gained from the COVID-19 pandemic to optimize the use of public health interventions other than vaccines to decrease the toll of future seasonal and potentially pandemic influenza. It considers the effectiveness of public health efforts such as use of masks and indoor spacing, use of treatments such as monoclonal antibodies, and public health communication campaigns.