Consultation for Improved Pandemic Preparedness in Switzerland

Swiss TPH brought together stakeholders from Switzerland and neighbouring countries to discuss the role of science and politics to enhance preparedness and response to future health emergencies. The overarching aim was to share and compare experiences and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic across systems and settings. On 16 August 2022, Swiss TPH hosted an informal high-level consultation with distinguished international and national representatives to substantially discuss and review the role of science and politics in responding better to future health emergencies. The consultation welcomed participants from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), the -Institut de recherche pour le développement- (IRD) in France , the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI), the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and the Universities of Basel, Bern, Geneva, St. Gallen and Zurich to Swiss TPH. -We were humbled to bring together diverse stakeholders from academia and politics to share - in a collegial atmosphere - our experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exchange with our partners in Europe was particularly revealing,- said Jürg Utzinger, Director of Swiss TPH. -In a next step, we will extract key lessons learned in order to strengthen our preparedness and response to future health emergencies.