By Peter Rabinowitz and Greg Gray

Governments and individuals are taking unprecedented, often very austere actions to control the ongoing spread of the pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). However, they are neglecting an extremely important question that could cause the loss of millions of more lives — how do we prevent the next zoonotic respiratory virus pandemic?

We have not yet identified the source of this virus. What if a new version emerges from the original animal source to cause a second wave of this pandemic?

By Mariel Boyarsky (MPH, 2015)

Mariel Boyarsky graduated from the University of Washington in 2015 with a Master of Public Health in Global Health. After completing nursing school, she began working at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in 2019. This is Mariel's firsthand account of working in the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Remdesivir, a non-specific antiviral drug that was originally tested against Ebola, has been shown to be effective against the new coronavirus in a preliminary data analysis, as reported by the National Institutes of Health. The UW School of Medicine was one of the sites in the National Institutes of Health trial. Dr.

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative recently awarded 21 rapid response grants to study COVID-19. Four of these grants include faculty members from the Department of Global Health – Deepa Rao, Kristina Adams Waldorf, Bryan Weiner, and James Mullins.