Is this the way to end pandemics on Earth?

1. Some parliaments and governments of ASEAN member states are pivoting to the One Health approach to prevent future pandemics.
2. Prevention costs 0.2 percent of annual pandemic recovery and preparedness and must be integrated into every “Build Back Better” program.
3. A “Roadmap” unveiled by 80+ organizations guides governments, corporations, communities, and individuals on how to scale up solutions for pandemic prevention.

A global alliance of practitioners in conservation, agriculture, health, security, finance, and communications, EndPandemics, today released a collaborative roadmap to prevent future pandemics to a special gathering of parliamentarians of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and observer countries.

Amidst the global surge of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) has committed to reviewing and promoting practical strategies to prevent pandemics and agreed to consider the One Health approach. A special “Executive Webinar on Preventing Pandemics” was organized by AIPA together with its MOU partner, Freeland and the EndPandemics alliance.

One Health combines measures that simultaneously address human health, animal health (including domesticated and wild animals), and ecosystem health to reduce the risks of pathogen outbreaks at their source. Two thirds of all new infectious diseases (including HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, and COVID-19) originate from animals.

Lawmakers and other officials from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as Canada, European Parliament, New Zealand, and Republic of Korea, were the first to review and discuss the “Roadmap to End Pandemics: Building It Together,” which lays out an innovative blueprint for pandemic prevention solutions.

The Roadmap offers an open framework for collaboration of governments, businesses, communities, civil society, and individuals along the 4 primary pillars of pandemic prevention: (1) reduce demand for wild animals, (2) phase out commercial trade in wild animals, (3) protect and restore natural habitats, and (4) make our farms and food systems safer and healthier.