Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 30;12(4):167-190.
doi: 10.4103/jgid.jgid_397_20. eCollection 2020 Oct-Dec.

COVID-19 Blind Spots: A Consensus Statement on the Importance of Competent Political Leadership and the Need for Public Health Cognizance

Thomas J Papadimos  1 , Samara E Soghoian  1 , Prabath Nanayakkara  1 , Sarman Singh  1 , Andrew C Miller  1 , Venkataramanaiah Saddikuti  1 , Achala Upendra Jayatilleke  1 , Siddharth P Dubhashi  1 , Michael S Firstenberg  1 , Vibha Dutta  1 , Vivek Chauhan  1 , Pushpa Sharma  1 , Sagar C Galwankar  1 , Manish Garg  1 , Nicholas Taylor  1 , Stanislaw P Stawicki  1
Affiliations

COVID-19 Blind Spots: A Consensus Statement on the Importance of Competent Political Leadership and the Need for Public Health Cognizance

Thomas J Papadimos et al. J Glob Infect Dis. .

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, important discoveries and considerations emerge regarding the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pathogen; its biological and epidemiological characteristics; and the corresponding psychological, societal, and public health (PH) impacts. During the past year, the global community underwent a massive transformation, including the implementation of numerous nonpharmacological interventions; critical diversions or modifications across various spheres of our economic and public domains; and a transition from consumption-driven to conservation-based behaviors. Providing essential necessities such as food, water, health care, financial, and other services has become a formidable challenge, with significant threats to the existing supply chains and the shortage or reduction of workforce across many sectors of the global economy. Food and pharmaceutical supply chains constitute uniquely vulnerable and critically important areas that require high levels of safety and compliance. Many regional health-care systems faced at least one wave of overwhelming COVID-19 case surges, and still face the possibility of a new wave of infections on the horizon, potentially in combination with other endemic diseases such as influenza, dengue, tuberculosis, and malaria. In this context, the need for an effective and scientifically informed leadership to sustain and improve global capacity to ensure international health security is starkly apparent. Public health "blind spotting," promulgation of pseudoscience, and academic dishonesty emerged as significant threats to population health and stability during the pandemic. The goal of this consensus statement is to provide a focused summary of such "blind spots" identified during an expert group intense analysis of "missed opportunities" during the initial wave of the pandemic.

Keywords: Blind spots; COVID-19; international health security; lessons learned; pandemic response; public health; public services; risk management; supply chains.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Word cloud reflecting the most common themes of the current consensus paper
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of employment across essential infrastructure industries
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Chauhan V, Galwankar SC, Yellapu V, Perez-Figueroa IJ, Stawicki SP. State of the Globe: The trials and tribulations of the COVID-19 pandemic: Separated but together, telemedicine revolution, frontline struggle against “silent hypoxia,” the relentless search for novel therapeutics and vaccines, and the daunting prospect of “COVIFLU”. J Glob Infect Dis. 2020;12:39–43. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Strzelecki A. The second worldwide wave of interest in coronavirus since the COVID-19 outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran: A Google Trends study. Brain Behav Immun. 2020;88:950–1. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stawicki SP, Jeanmonod R, Miller AC, Paladino L, Gaieski DF, Yaffee AQ. The 2019-2020 novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic: A joint American college of academic international medicine-world academic council of emergency medicine multidisciplinary COVID-19 working group consensus paper. J Global Infect Dis. 2020;12:47. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kalra S, Kelkar D, Galwankar SC, Papadimos TJ, Stawicki SP, Arquilla B. The emergence of Ebola as a global health security threat: From 'lessons learned' to coordinated multilateral containment efforts. J Global Infect Dis. 2014;6:164. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kalil AC. Treating COVID-19-off-label drug use, compassionate use, and randomized clinical trials during pandemics. JAMA. 2020;323:1897–8. - PubMed