A World in Disorder: GPMB 2020 Annual Report

Overview

As the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) noted last year, pathogens thrive in disruption and disorder.1 COVID-19 has proven the point. Where sufficient resources, cooperation, and organization were applied, it was slowed. Where disarray, division and poverty reign, it has thrived. In issuing its warning in last year’s inaugural report, the GPMB stressed the inadequacy of systems and financing required to detect and respond to health emergencies. As COVID-19 has proven, these systems remain dangerously deficient and under-resourced. This pandemic has also called out the human dimensions of health security, the actions of leaders and citizens that are so critical to vigorous preparedness and response.