How to end Covid-19 as a public health threat

A panel of more than 350 experts from around the world, including academics at UCL, have provided recommendations on how to end the public health threat from Covid-19. The study which involves a series of consultations, allowing those consulted to reconsider their views based on the earlier, anonymised responses of their peers. The 57 recommendations that emerged encompass six major areas: communications, health systems, vaccination, prevention, treatment and care, and inequities. The recommendations - endorsed by 150 organisations around the world - are directed at governments, health systems, industry, and other key stakeholders. Three of the highest-ranked recommendations - that is, they garnered the strongest support - were: adopt a whole-of-society strategy that involves multiple disciplines, sectors and actors to avoid fragmented efforts; whole-of-government approaches (e.g. coordination between ministries) to identify, review, and address resilience in health systems and make them more responsive to people's needs; and maintain a vaccines-plus approach, which includes a combination of Covid-19 vaccination, other structural and behavioural prevention measures, treatment, and financial support measures. The panellists also gave strong support to the statement: "To reduce the burden on hospitals, primary care should be strengthened to include testing, contact tracing, the monitoring of mild symptoms, and vaccination." They also emphasised the need for significant efforts to improve health communications, rebuild public trust, combat misinformation, and engage communities directly in the management of this and future public health emergency responses.