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Nature Panel Discussion: How to end COVID19 as a public health threat
28 November 2022
A panel of more than 350 experts from around the world, including academics at UCL, have provided recommendations on how to end the public health threat of Covid-19.
The study, published in Nature, aimed to identify the consensus view among experts by using the Delphi technique, which involves a series of consultations, allowing those consulted to reconsider their views based on the earlier, anonymised responses of their peers.
The 57 recommendations that emerged encompass six major areas: communications, health systems, vaccination, prevention, treatment and care, and inequities. The recommendations – endorsed by 150 organisations around the world – are directed at governments, health systems, industry, and other key stakeholders.
Three of the highest-ranked recommendations – that is, they garnered the strongest support – were:
- adopt a whole-of-society strategy that involves multiple disciplines, sectors and actors to avoid fragmented efforts;
- whole-of-government approaches (e.g. coordination between ministries) to identify, review, and address resilience in health systems and make them more responsive to people’s needs; and
- maintain a vaccines-plus approach, which includes a combination of Covid-19 vaccination, other structural and behavioural prevention measures, treatment, and financial support measures.
The panellists also gave strong support to the statement: “To reduce the burden on hospitals, primary care should be strengthened to include testing, contact tracing, the monitoring of mild symptoms, and vaccination.”
Co-author Professor Susan Michie (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said: “Covid-19 is a persistent and worrying public health threat. While some governments want to move on, specific resources and actions are still needed to save lives.
“This study charts a promising path forward, as identified by a wide range of experts from across the globe. Among the recommendations is the call to maintain a vaccines-plus approach - including regular testing, monitoring of symptoms, and encouraging people to take precautions such as wearing face masks in crowded places.”
Co-author Oksana Pyzik (UCL School of Pharmacy) said: “The global response to Covid-19 has been fraught with challenges. Each country has responded differently, and often inadequately, with a worrying lack of coordination and clear goals. This consensus provides a framework for ending the Covid-19 threat without exacerbating economic burdens or putting the most vulnerable at risk.”
Professor Jeffrey V Lazarus, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and coordinator of the study, said: “Health policymakers and implementers today are besieged with proposals on ending Covid-19.
“With this consensus, we make unique, practical proposals to end Covid-19 as a public health threat now and lay a solid groundwork to address large-scale outbreaks of infectious disease, reducing the burden on society, especially vulnerable populations, over time.”
An online panel discussion “How to end COVID-19 as a public health threat” with Prof Susan Michie, Oksana Pyzik, Prof Martin McKee and Prof Diana Romero took place on Monday 7 November.