“Data may become a powerful, twenty-first century tool to stem the next pandemic. As we have learned through history, though, we must make sure the cure is not worse than the disease.”
Michael Chertoff writing on global cooperation after COVID-19 in the South China Morning Post
It has become clear that global cooperation is essential to countering the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts and charting a path forward. In two digital series, contributors (including Ralph Goodale, Melissa Hathaway, Michael Chertoff, Bessma Momani, Susan Etlinger and many others) analyze the impacts of the pandemic and identify fundamental changes needed to create trust and social cohesion, improve security and intelligence, and shift governance and policy.
Goodale summed up a sentiment echoed by many: “In doing our best to minimize the negative impacts of the pandemic and recover as fast and as well as possible, we also need to focus on how to ‘build back better’ than what was there before.” Etlinger stressed the importance of being careful so that “in trying to solve one problem, we’re not creating an entirely new set of problems that will plague us for years to come.”