Publications

As AI models that are increasingly capable of potentially designing deadlier pathogens are released to the public, a critical gap in the European Union's new AI regulations leaves these highly capable models completely unregulated, despite their potential to pose far greater biosecurity risks than regulated models.

A tool for cross-sectoral prioritization of transboundary zoonotic diseases, and mapping of systems for One Health coordination at formal border crossings. 

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, a historical milestone for the first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons. Despite major shortcomings and barriers, the BWC remains a stalwart bulwark against the deliberate misuse of biology. In this special feature, experts from around the world highlight critical challenges and opportunities for the BWC, honoring the treaty’s first half-century and drawing lessons from past experiences, but more importantly, looking ahead to envision the next 50 years of biological weapons disarmament and nonproliferation.

Engineering infection controls include a wide range of interventions used indoors to reduce occupants’ exposure to respiratory pathogens.

Germicidal ultraviolet light (GUV) is gaining attention for air disinfection, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. GUV air cleaning devices use 222 or 254 nm light to remove airborne and surface pathogens from indoor environments, although their impact on indoor chemistry has received limited attention.

The One Health Systems Transboundary Assessment for Priority Zoonoses (OHTAPZ) tool was developed to address the need for a multisectoral approach in assessing transboundary zoonotic disease threats within and across shared land borders. This study sought to implement recommendations from the tool’s initial pilot and revise it for further application.

As of 20 May, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in more than 173.1 million birds since the outbreak began in January 2022.

On June 1, 2024, the World Health Assembly adopted a suite of amendments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). The amendments are the most significant reform of the Regulations since their adoption following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak two decades ago. Reflecting the global health injustices seen during successive public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Regulations now expressly include equity and solidarity as principles for the interpretation and implementation of the treaty.

A major challenge of pandemic preparedness is how to anticipate and prepare for future pandemic threats among the wide range of viral threats that can infect humans. Fortunately, only a subset of the 25 viral families that can infect humans have both the capability of widespread respiratory transmission in humans or animals, a prerequisite for pandemic-causing capability, as well a lack of medical countermeasures (MCMs) to prevent and treat the key viral species within them.

The International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is designed to assist States Parties in assessing progress toward compliance and sustainable capacities under the IHR. The States Parties Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR) is the only mandatory tool in the 4-component framework.

As a result of rapidly accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, multiple national governments and multinational bodies have launched efforts to address safety, security and ethics issues related to AI models.

Objective: To explore the possible association and trends between individual-level disaster preparedness status (for natural, technological, and human-caused hazards) and the level of pandemic preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic among adults in the U.S. from 2021 through 2023.

International law and global governance regimes for environmental health challenges have been slow to reflect the intertwined relationship between the environment and human health. Historical legacies have caused artificial fragmentation between the two that has resulted in distinct fields of international law and institutions for the environment and health. However, new global paradigms for thinking about environmental health have emerged to foster synthesis under global health law, including One Health and Planetary Health approaches, as well as through international human rights law like the recognition of the right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment.