Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Senior Scholar Caitlin Rivers Seconded to the CDC to Help Establish the Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics
Center News
August 18, 2021 – Today, Dr. Caitlin Rivers, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, begins a secondment at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help establish the new Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. Dr. Rivers will serve as Associate Director.
During rapidly evolving infectious disease outbreaks, early understanding of the potential spread and severity of an outbreak can enable public health leaders to take decisive action, even when data are scarce. The new Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics will improve our nation’s epidemic response capabilities by improving the forecasts, data, and analytics that leaders use to make decisions.
“I’m honored for this opportunity,” said Dr. Rivers. “The forecasting center is an important investment in our nation’s public health infrastructure. We hear a lot about the need to advance vaccines and therapeutics, but there is just as much work to be done in the realm of data, forecasting, and analytics.”
“COVID-19 has done great damage to our country in terms of sickness, loss-of-life, and economic consequences,” said Anita Cicero, deputy director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Dr. Rivers and her colleagues’ vision and leadership to establish the Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics will ensure we have tools in place to track and respond to the next crisis more effectively.”
Dr. Rivers will join Dr. Dylan George, Dr. Marc Lipsitch, Dr. Rebecca Kahn and CDC colleagues in this work.