Imagining the future of pandemics and epidemics: a 2022 perspective
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The World Health Organization's 1st foresight report, “Imagining the Future of Pandemics and Epidemics”, attempts to explore what the future of infectious threats might look like, using a short time horizon (3-5 years) to encourage immediate action. Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report sets out possible scenarios which are not predictions of the future, but instead invite us to imagine the different directions that the current and future pandemics might take and to expand the range of plausible futures. The scenarios are an opportunity to identify possible risks and solutions, discuss implications and propose actions aimed at preventing the occurrence or mitigating the impact of the current and future infectious threats.
