How Brown University's Pandemic Tracker is filling a gap in federal health data
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Q. The
has garnered public attention. Why do you think people look to the newsletter for information?
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Nuzzo:
People are worried about potential threats and what it means for them. They're looking for trusted information and unfortunately these days I think people are questioning whether the information coming out of our health agencies is correct. ... One of the reasons why we are also tracking this information is because there had been … a lot of change in terms of what data federal health agencies were sharing. We decided to start going directly to state health departments for information.
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Pandemic Center Director Jennifer Nuzzo at a meeting for a new edition of the Tracking Report. Foreground: Research Assistant Alice Im.
Kenneth Zirkel
How has data changed since COVID-19?
Where I do see a difference is that the
How is the information you present different than the CDC website?
I don't want to give the sense something nefarious is happening. It's not nefarious. Where we have concerning discrepancies is in interpretation of data. There's a period of time where the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., when getting questions about these
Initially, the CDC was only showing a very cursory summary of measles cases. It wasn't showing the breakdown, whether they're hospitalized, or you know, the vaccination status. ... There's now better data on CDC's website, but initially there wasn't. Part of why we're doing this exercise is if something changes we're ready to fill in the gaps.
Why is it so surprising that this measles outbreak is happening?
United States eliminated measles in 2000. There is no good reason why any country with the technical and financial resources of the United States should have measles, period. It's not to say that other countries haven't struggled with measles outbreaks — they have — including, other high-income countries like us, but measles elimination status is determined by how quickly you respond and contain the outbreaks.
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The latest Pandemic Tracker highlights measles, mpox, avian influenza, cholera, seasonal influenza, COVID-19, and pertussis. What is the importance of tracking these diseases?
It's based on what's going on in the world. For instance, a few months ago, we were very actively tracking
Are you seeing an influx of people
who are craving good, scientific information?
I think there's always going to be a role for independent expert voices.
People want to hear from people in their community. I do think, now, that people are very worried about the integrity of our health agencies, about funding cuts that make it harder to do the important work and research that keeps people healthy. ... The American people, despite the headlines, trust scientists, they value scientific research, and they want more of it.
On the Pandemic Tracker website, you have a program called
. Talk about the global pandemic early warning system intended to 'rapidly detect future outbreaks of infectious diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential?'
It's part of the Global Health Exemplars Program. We're studying really interesting approaches to surveillance in four low- and middle-income countries. What we're learning is applicable to all countries, but these are countries who are doing things
with surveillance that are starting to allow them not to just understand when an outbreak happens and figure that out early, but perhaps to give them a better sense of what are the conditions that make outbreaks more likely to occur. And then, perhaps, take action to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
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Can you talk a little bit about use of wastewater testing?
I think one important innovation that came out of the pandemic … is wastewater surveillance and the increased understanding of it as a potential tool for monitoring infections in a community. We are now using wastewater to monitor other things: influenza, mpox, and it's now just starting to be used for measles. We have been seeing signals of measles infections in states that hadn't yet reported measles cases. This is important because we think that measles cases are being under-detected in the US and wastewater data is giving us even more indication of that.
On the site there is a 'testing playbook' for biological emergencies. Can you share more about preparedness and response to these emergencies?
If we have to think of what's the single biggest thing that went wrong in the US response to COVID, it was that we didn't quickly establish and scale up the availability of testing. It was a well-acknowledged challenge and yet in 2022 when the mpox outbreaks started happening in the United States, yet again, we were hearing clinicians saying, 'I can't get my patient tested.' There were tests available, but it just wasn't where the patients were. We decided to write the testing playbook to better clarify the different approaches to testing to give busy decision-makers a better set of questions to be asking in response to a biological emergency.
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Here are a few ways to follow Brown University SPH's Pandemic Tracker:
Pandemic Center
Pandemic Center
Tracking Report Newsletter
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Boston Globe's weekly Ocean State Innovators column features a Q&A with Rhode Island innovators who are starting new businesses and nonprofits, conducting groundbreaking research, and reshaping the state's economy. Send tips and suggestions to reporter Alexa Gagosz at
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