Background
In mid-July, GloPID-R convened its members, scientists who had received COVID-19 funding, and world leaders in pandemic preparedness and response for a series of COVID-19 Research Synergies Meetings with the purpose of establishing collaboration and identifying knowledge gaps, in order to build a collective path forward to end COVID-19. GloPID-R is an international consortium of 29 funding organisations invested in research related to new or re-emerging infectious diseases [1]. By offering a coordination platform, GloPID-R aims to maximise the use of available resources and streamline research efforts amongst national and global funders. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented devastation to the health and economies of countries across the world and has highlighted basic inequalities in society. Understanding the fundamentals of COVID-19 and building on a collaborative approach between researchers and institutions to achieve health equity, universal access and data sharing is critical to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Lockdowns, in my view, have been successful in helping to reduce transmission and new infections, but they haven’t changed the fundamentals of this infection. The virus biology, its transmission, how infectious it is, the clinical syndrome it causes, the inequalities it drives through the world, and of course the tertiary consequences in economics and in geopolitics. So, I think we are only very much at the start and we need to be humble about the challenge we face. We do not yet have a clear exit strategy and we need to define one.” J. Farrar, Wellcome