problems. ‘In a world where technology moguls are becoming major
funders of research, we must not fall for the seductive idea that
young, tech-savvy college grads can single-handedly fix public
health on their computers,’ she wrote afterwards.[16]
Many tech approaches are neither feasible nor sustainable.
Buckee has pointed to many failed attempts at tech pilot studies or
apps that hoped to ‘disrupt’ traditional methods. Then there’s the
need to evaluate how well health measures actually work, rather
than just assuming good ideas will emerge naturally like successful
start ups. ‘Pandemic preparedness requires a long-term engagement
with politically complex, multidimensional problems – not disruption,’
as she put it.
Technology can still play a major role in modern outbreak
analysis. Researchers routinely use mathematical models to help
design control measures, smartphones to collect patient data, and
pathogen sequences to track the spread of infection.[17] However,
the biggest challenges are often practical rather than computational.
Being able to gather and analyse data is one thing; spotting an
outbreak and having the resources to do something about it is quite
another. When Ebola caused its first major epidemic in 2014,
transmission was centred on Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, three
countries that ranked among the world’s poorest. A second major
epidemic would begin in 2018, when Ebola hit a conflict zone in the
northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; by July
2019, with 2,500 cases and rising, would declare it a Public
Health Emergency of International Concern ( ).[18] The global
imbalance in health capacity even shows up in scientific terminology.
The 2009 pandemic flu virus emerged in Mexico, but its official
designation is ‘A/California/7/2009(H1N1)’, because that’s where a
lab first identified the new virus.[19]
These logistical challenges mean that research can struggle to
keep up with new outbreaks. During 2015 and 2016, Zika spread
widely, spurring researchers to plan large-scale clinical studies and
vaccine trials.[20] But as soon as many of these studies were ready
to start, the cases stopped. This is a common frustration in outbreak