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Top New Zealand Health Official Cites GHS Index as Key to Country’s Successful COVID-19 Response

A leading biochemist and top health advisor to New Zealand’s government says the 2019 Global Health Security (GHS) Index was key to the country’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Siouxsie Wiles, a renowned infectious disease expert and advisor to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, told the Winnipeg Free Press that the report… Read full news item

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Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nearly two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, some lessons from the pandemic are clear: Countries’ ability to measure the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths depend on their having public health capacities such as diagnostic and screening tests,… Read full news item

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Inaugural Global Health Security Index Finds No Country Is Prepared for Epidemics or Pandemics

United Nations should call heads-of-state summit on catastrophic biological risks by 2021 WASHINGTON, DC — National health security is fundamentally weak around the world, and no country is fully prepared to handle an epidemic or pandemic, according to the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities… Read full news item

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How the United States Squandered its Capacities to Respond to the Pandemic

With more reported cases and more deaths than any other country, the United States’ poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world. As documented by the 2019 GHS Index, the United States had more global health security capacities in place to prevent and respond to epidemics and pandemics than… Read full news item

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Behind the Scores: Spotlight on Countries with Improved Capabilities

While the 2021 Global Health Security Index reported that all countries remain dangerously vulnerable to future biological threats, it also showed marked improvements in preparedness in recent years for four nations. Released in December 2021, most recent version of the Index shows New Zealand, Lithuania, Chile, and Georgia improving their… Read full news item

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GHS Index Experts Address U.S. Response to COVID-19 in Context of GHS Index Ranking in New JAMA Article

Global Health Security (GHS) Index report authors Jennifer Nuzzo, Jessica Bell, and Beth Cameron address the United States’ inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of its top rank in the GHS Index in a new article for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The article,… Read full news item

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Preparedness for Pandemics Means Acting Now

COVID-19 has demonstrated the inadequacy of current global capacities to help countries respond to pandemics. The pervasive and protracted nature of pandemics distinguishes them from epidemics, which are more limited in geographic scope. In an epidemic, unaffected nations may be able to contribute funds, personnel, and other resources to assist… Read full news item

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New Zealand: A Case Study in Progress

Since the release of the 2019 GHS Index, New Zealand has made improvements in detection and reporting and compliance with international norms, which led to it jumping up 12 positions in rank. In particular, New Zealand showed increased capacity across laboratory system strength and quality, supply chains, and epidemiological… Read full news item

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The U.S. and COVID-19: Leading the World by GHS Index Score, not by Response

Amid the threat posed by COVID-19 the Global Health Security (GHS) Index has been used repeatedly as a reference for global preparedness during the pandemic. This is a key goal of the GHS Index, and the COVID-19 pandemic has become a proof point for its main finding:  national health security is… Read full news item