New Book Highlights Research on Infection Preparedness – PandemiX Contributes with Unique Chapter

The book Principles and Practice of Emergency Research Response brings together expert knowledge on how research preparedness and rapid response can prevent infectious diseases from developing into pandemics. It focuses on the growing importance of swift research efforts during health crises and explores the challenges and solutions at scientific, ethical, and political levels. With its normative standards, the book provides practical and theoretical guidelines that can strengthen global health.

The three PandemiX researchers, all of whom have extensive experience from the COVID-19 pandemic, are proud to have contributed to this book. The chapter examines a key phenomenon in the spread of SARS-CoV-2: superspreading. The researchers explain in the chapter how a small proportion of the infected – so-called superspreaders – were responsible for the majority of transmission during the pandemic. This insight is crucial to understanding how the virus could spread so quickly in certain situations, such as at large gatherings or in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation.

The chapter also discusses how the early stages of the pandemic revealed that traditional models of transmission could not always explain the explosive number of cases in certain areas, and especially not the effects of lockdowns. SARS-CoV-2 spread largely through so-called "superspreader events," which meant that targeted lockdowns and restrictions in high-risk situations could be particularly effective. A central message of the chapter is that early quantification of the degree of superspreading and the contexts in which superspreading typically occurs can play a crucial role in limiting the spread of a future virus.

“Principles and Practice of Emergency Research Response” and the chapter on superspreading are available online and can be accessed here