On March 11, 2020, the World Well being Group declared the coronavirus SARS-cov-2 a world pandemic. The next article from The Dialog outlines a few of the classes discovered within the final 5 years.
Katherine A. Foss, Center Tennessee State College
5 years in the past, on March 11, 2020, the World Well being Group declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a world pandemic. The novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, started as a “cluster of extreme pneumonia circumstances of unknown trigger” reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It had unfold to 118,000 circumstances reported in 114 international locations by March 11.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general on the time, mentioned in a media briefing that day that “the WHO is deeply involved each by the alarming ranges of unfold and severity and by the alarming ranges of inaction.” He urged leaders to maneuver rapidly to scale up their emergency responses, saying that “all international locations can nonetheless change the course of this pandemic.”
Public well being businesses just like the WHO and the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention performed vital roles all through the pandemic in coordinating with native well being departments to detect, hint and check for the virus. The WHO and CDC web sites acquired unprecedented visitors as they turned invaluable go-to sources for probably the most up-to-date assets on technique of prevention, case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths. The Nationwide Institutes of Well being was instrumental in its growth of COVID-19 therapies and contributions to vaccine analysis.
Now, 5 years later, the Trump administration has reduce greater than 5,000 staff on the NIH and the CDC mixed, and is withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO.
On the identical time, the U.S. is going through outbreaks of tuberculosis, a resurgence of measles amongst unvaccinated communities, and the worst flu season in 15 years.
A lot of the work of the WHO, CDC and different public well being businesses happens behind the scenes, solely sometimes drawing public consideration. To place these roles into perspective, it may be useful to look at public well being earlier than these unifying entities existed. In February 2025, the Trump administration laid off almost 1,300 CDC employees, or 10% of its workforce. A few of these firings have since been rescinded.
A spreading epidemic, gradual communications
Because the creator of the 2020 e book “Developing the Outbreak: Epidemics in Media and Collective Reminiscence” and “Capturing COVID: Media & the Pandemic within the Digital Period,” revealed in 2025, I’ve extensively studied how public well being crises have unfolded. And thru my analysis as a well being communication scholar, I’ve analyzed the integral function of nonprofits and public businesses in defending public well being.
Each the WHO and the CDC had been arrange within the Nineteen Forties. Earlier than a world and even nationwide community of public well being businesses existed, there have been no coordinated communication means, exterior investigations or formalized methods of recording knowledge throughout geographic areas. And not using a technique of sharing data, it was far more troublesome for outbreaks and epidemics to be linked between areas.
One notable instance was the 1918 influenza pandemic, a lethal mixture of influenza and pneumonia that first emerged in a Kansas military base within the spring of 1918. From there, the epidemic moved abroad, spreading all through Asia and Europe by late summer time. When it returned to the U.S. in August, the illness had been mislabeled the “Spanish flu.” The shortage of media protection of the spring outbreak, paired with the dearth of illness monitoring, meant that most individuals believed the deadly strains had begun in Europe.
Nobody formally tracked these outbreaks till the illness returned with American troops in August 1918. In September, the U.S. Surgeon Basic and the U.S. Public Well being Service tried to gauge the magnitude and transmission of influenza by sending telegrams to state well being officers.
By that time, it was a lot too late for mass preparation. The few tales of the spring outbreaks had been buried in a flood of competing information tales concerning the world conflict. Due to this fact, folks knew nearly nothing concerning the raging illness till it contaminated their very own city. Brief on assets and caregivers, communities struggled to create makeshift hospitals and discover wholesome residents to nurse the in poor health.
For instance, on the College of Kansas through the influenza pandemic, feminine professors cared for sick college students, school and workers, washed linens and ready meals. Since businesses just like the WHO and CDC didn’t but exist and the world conflict additional impeded communication, little data was documented and shared throughout geographic areas, such because the sharing of data on easy methods to stop the illness from spreading, attainable therapies and even the variety of circumstances and deaths.
The influenza pandemic rapidly light within the public’s collective reminiscence, due partially to an absence of non-public narratives and follow-up tales after circumstances subsided – at the very least till COVID-19 sparked renewed public curiosity within the 100-year-old disaster.
Polio epidemic noticed a extra coordinated response
Beginning within the Nineteen Thirties, public well being responses to polio outbreaks demonstrated the benefits of nationally coordinated efforts. The Nationwide Basis for Childish Paralysis helped battle polio by way of fundraising, working intensive campaigns to coach the general public, supporting scientific analysis and serving to victims from the acute hospital stage by way of rehabilitation. This effort was particularly obvious within the 1952 polio epidemic.
In the summertime of 1952, U.S. polio circumstances escalated, finally totaling 57,628 – greater than one-third of which included varied phases of paralysis. All through the epidemic, the Nationwide Basis for Childish Paralysis coordinated with native chapters of its group. Collectively, the inspiration saved folks knowledgeable of the rising epidemic, created emergency polio-focused hospital wings, recruited nurses and different well being professionals, and shared assets to the areas with outbreaks.
Widespread vaccination efforts led to a deep discount in polio circumstances within the U.S. by the Sixties, prompting the Nationwide Basis for Childish Paralysis to vary its title and mission to the March of Dimes. The group served as a mannequin for nonprofits and public well being businesses for speaking and coordinating between native and nationwide entities.
The vital function of public well being businesses
The CDC opened in 1946 as a small group primarily based in Atlanta, geared toward preventing malaria within the U.S. Two years later, representatives from 53 international locations ratified the structure of the WHO. This international entity introduced international locations collectively throughout continents to deal with illness surveillance, prevention, remedy and analysis.
As these businesses expanded into new areas of public well being over the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties, they mirrored lots of the approaches and methods utilized by the Nationwide Basis for Childish Paralysis: monitoring and recording knowledge public, educating the general public, investigating threats, aiding in moments of disaster and supporting scientific analysis. Collectively, the CDC and the WHO enormously improved public well being, from the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the decline of vaccine-preventable illnesses to the event and implementation of HIV/AIDS therapies.
Previous to the COVID-19 pandemic, the roles of those businesses usually didn’t garner a lot consideration, as area brokers traveled to look at one thing as routine as salmonella or as scary as hemorrhagic fever circumstances.
Whereas public opinions of the CDC and the WHO shifted all through the COVID-19 pandemic, current survey outcomes point out that almost all of Individuals belief public well being businesses at the very least to a point. A 2024 survey discovered that almost 60% of American adults consider that the U.S. benefited from its WHO membership.
Sadly, when infectious illnesses transfer out of the highlight and are seen as much less pressing, the vital roles of those public well being businesses fade into the distant collective reminiscence, very like the 1918 and COVID-19 pandemics. Individuals quickly sufficient overlook the necessity for ongoing scientific analysis, academic packages and groups that may rapidly reply to native, nationwide and worldwide ranges.
Illness continues to be a menace, because the outbreaks of measles, tuberculosis, influenza and different pathogens remind us. Individuals are nonetheless sick or dying of COVID-19: As of March 1, 6,725 folks had died within the U.S. from COVID-19 simply in 2025, and almost 7.1 million have died worldwide since January 2020.
With out sturdy, coordinated efforts between public well being businesses, even small well being calamities can escalate into full-blown epidemics and even pandemics, which the world shall be far much less ready to deal with.
Katherine A. Foss, Professor of Media Research, Center Tennessee State College
This text is republished from The Dialog beneath a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.
Picture: Credit score: CDC’s Public Well being Picture Library. PHIL ID #23312.
This illustration, created on the CDC, reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Be aware the spikes that adorn the outer floor of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when considered electron microscopically.
