Not a Failure of Imagination: COVID-19's Lessons Learned with Johns Hopkins Professor Gigi Gronvall

This week, we speak with Johns Hopkins Professor Gigi Gronvall, a leading biosecurity expert who has tracked and monitored the scientific response to COVID-19, in addition to having served on and led varying government sponsored committees/groups advising the Defense Department on varying global health issues. Professor Gronvall discusses the response to COVID-19, asserting that the now years-long crisis isn't a failure of the imagination -- but rather a problem of attention and funding. Professor Gronvall compares the U.S. response to the pandemic to that of other countries, while also dispelling common myths about the virus. Professor Gronvall provides her take on the misinformation that has circulated around the pandemic, talks about the pandemic's uncertain origins, and what future concerns for further mutations currently look like. We also evaluate China's Zero-COVID policy, in addition to framing COVID-19 as a national security issue, applying some of the lessons learned to future preparation for both pandemics and purposeful biowarfare.

Here is Professor Gronvall's paper on the origin of SARS-CoV-2.