Origins, Early Spread of the Pandemic, and One Health Solutions to Future Pandemic Threats
This Task Force will focus on analyzing data on all of the theories put forward on the origins of COVID, on the reasons why SARS-CoV-2 was able to break out of Wuhan and spread globally, and on the most plausible strategies to prevent future pandemics. The Task Force will review thoroughly and objectively all publicly available evidence, particularly the peer-reviewed literature, and conduct interviews with key leaders in science, medicine, policy and civil society. The Task Force will assess the validity of evidence, the weight of evidence, and the gaps in our understanding for each key question and issue. The Task Force will report to the wider Commission and the final Commission report will be independently peer reviewed and published by The Lancet. Experts and interested parties are strongly encouraged to submit evidence to the Task Force and this will be reviewed as part of the deliberations. If you have evidence to review, please email originstaskforce@unsdsn.org.
Publications of the Origins, Early Spread of the Pandemic, and One Health Solutions to Future Pandemic Threats Task Force express the findings, results, and views of members of the Origins, Early Spread of the Pandemic, and One Health Solutions to Future Pandemic Threats Task Force. They do not reflect the findings, results, and views of Commissioners not engaged on the Task Force or of the Lancet family of journals or other publication outlets unless explicitly specified. The Origins, Early Spread of the Pandemic, and One Health Solutions to Future Pandemic Threats Task Force does not contribute to other publications or statements issued by the Lancet COVID-19 Commission or the Task Forces or to other publications in the Lancet family of journals or other publication outlets, unless explicitly specified.
Task Force members serve in their individual capacities, on an honorary basis. The Secretariat of the Origins, Early Spread of the Pandemic, and One Health Solutions to Future Pandemic Threats Task Force is hosted by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), Columbia University.
Task Force Publications:
Members:
Dr. John H. Amuasi Leader, Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, KNUST (Ghana)
Dr. John H. Amuasi lectures at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he is based at the Global Health Department of the School of Public Health and is head of the Department of Community Health at the School of Medicine and Dentistry. MORE
Dr. Danielle Anderson Senior Research Fellow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Australia)
Dr. Danielle Anderson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. In January 2020, while located at Duke-NUS Medical School, Dr Anderson and her team isolated SARS-CoV-2 from a clinical sample from one of the first COVID-19 patients in Singapore. MORE
Dr. Carlos das Neves Director for Research and Internationalisation, President of the Wildlife Disease Association (Portugal/Norway)
Carlos Gonçalo das Neves graduated in Veterinary Medicine, from the Technical University of Lisbon in 2004, and obtained his doctorate (PhD) in veterinary science, specialty Virology in 2009 from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences. MORE
Dr. Peter Daszak President, EcoHealth Alliance (USA)
(recused from Commission work on the origins of the pandemic)
Dr. Peter Daszak is President of EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based organization that conducts research and outreach programs on global health, conservation and international development. Dr. Daszak’s research has been instrumental in identifying and predicting the origins and impact of emerging diseases across the globe. MORE
Dr. Isabella Eckerle Head of the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases, University of Geneva (Switzerland)
Dr. Isabella Eckerle’s research interests are the laboratory-based risk assessment of emerging viruses. This includes the development of cell culture models from reservoir hosts such as bats and rodents, the assessment of viral diversity and virus discovery in both humans and animals and the epidemiology of novel emerging viruses with a focus on coronaviruses. MORE
Dr. Hume Field Adjunct Professor, School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland (Australia)
Dr. Hume Field is an international authority on emerging zoonoses associated with bats. His formal qualifications include veterinary science, environmental science and emerging diseases epidemiology. He has played a key role in the identification of various species of bats as the natural reservoir of Hendra virus and Australian bat lyssavirus (Australia), Nipah virus (Malaysia and Indonesia), SARS coronavirus (China), and Reston Ebolavirus (Philippines). MORE
Dr. Gerald T. Keusch Professor of Medicine and International Health, Boston University School of Medicine (USA)
Dr. Gerald Keusch is a Professor of Medicine and International Health at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health since 2004. He is Associate Director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Institute at BU for the study of high consequence emerging virus pathogens. MORE
Dr. Sai Kit Lam Research Consultant, Universiti Malaya (Malaysia)
Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Sai Kit Lam has been at the forefront of infectious viral disease research for more than 40 years. He is best known for heading the medical team that discovered the Nipah virus, which resulted in the containment of a severe encephalitis outbreak in Malaysia in 1999. MORE
Dr. Malik Peiris Professor of Virology, The University of Hong Kong (China)
Professor Malik Peiris is a clinical and public health virologist with a particular interest in emerging virus disease at the animal-human interface using a “One Health” approach, including influenza, coronaviruses (SARS, MERS), and others. His current research encompasses the pathogenesis, innate immune responses, transmission, ecology, and epidemiology of human and animal (poultry, swine, wild birds) influenza viruses. MORE
Dr. Stanley Perlman Professor, Depts of Microbiology and Immunology, and Pediatrics, University of Iowa (USA)
Dr. Perlman’s laboratory has been interested in the pathogenesis of murine coronavirus infections for several years. Now, they also study three respiratory human coronavirus infections: SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)-coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory syndrome (MERS)-coronavirus, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). MORE
Dr. Linda J. Saif Distinguished University Professor, OARDC/The Ohio State University (USA)
Dr. Linda Saif is a Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU) in the Food Animal Health Research Program (College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences) and the Veterinary Preventive Medicine Department (College of Veterinary Medicine). She is Co-Director for the Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program of the OSU Infectious Diseases Institute. MORE
Dr. Supaporn Wacharapluesadee Deputy Chief, Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre (Thailand)
Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, PhD is the Deputy Chief at the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre (TRC-EID), Faculty of Medicine, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, The Thai Red Cross Society and Lab chief for WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training on Viral Zoonoses. MORE