Shifting our stance for current COVID-19 outbreaks: A global response to an international pandemic

Abstract

The current COVID pandemic, and the quick spread of infectious diseases in general, remind us how interconnected we are as human beings on our planet. The United States (US) and other developed countries with strong vaccination rates should not consider themselves immune from the current pandemic until more people in the world are protected. With the Delta variant threatening increased transmission and reduced effectiveness of current vaccines [1], vaccine administration alone is not the total solution to achieve herd immunity within developed countries either. Especially in pockets of the world where pub- lic health is not coordinated and vulnerable populations face difficulties accessing health care and vaccines, the pandemic has avoided the only weapon developed against it and continues to ricochet around the world. Unless world leaders see the world community as their own and join to fight the contagion as part of a united global front, COVID-19's destructive effects will continue to wash over and ripple everywhere, including the US. The next pandemic is happening now, and it is time for the US leaders to join nationally and internationally in a war not against each other, but against a common enemy: the global pandemic. In May 2021, Stanford University School of Medicine convened over 40 global researchers, physicians, and health advocates and 500 health attendees across 12 time zones to share lessons learned from their country’s respective public health efforts during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.