In 2022, Quique Bassat contributed to a breakthrough publication: ‘A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat’ in the renowned journal Nature. This Delphi study incorporated a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government, and other experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries and territories to recommend specific actions to end this persistent global threat to public health.
The panel presented 41 consensus statements and 57 recommendations across six domains–communication; health systems; vaccination; prevention; treatment and care; and inequities–to address the issue of COVID-19 across the globe.
Three of the highest-ranked recommendations are: i) adopt a whole-of-society strategy that involves multiple disciplines, sectors and actors to avoid fragmented efforts; ii) whole-of-government approaches (e.g. coordination between ministries) to identify, review, and address resilience in health systems and make them more responsive to people’s needs; and iii) maintain a vaccines-plus approach, which includes a combination of COVID-19 vaccination, other structural and behavioural prevention measures, treatment, and financial support measures. The panellists also prioritised recommendations for developing technologies (vaccines, therapies and services) that can reach target populations. Other recommendations with at least 99% agreement were: communicating effectively with the public, rebuilding public trust, and engaging communities in managing the pandemic response.
The 57 recommendations are directed at governments, health systems, industry, and other key stakeholders. To the greatest degree possible, our results place emphasis on health and social policy recommendations that can be implemented in months, not years, to help bring this public health threat to an end, says Quique Bassat, ICREA professor at ISGlobal, co-author of the study, and member of the University of Barcelona.
For more insights about the main findings and suggestions, take a look at the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05398-2
