Preventing the next pandemic Vaccine diplomacy in a time of anti-science

Infectious and tropical diseases have been rising across the world. COVID-19, Ebola, and SARS are all-too familiar, while others, particularly parasite infestations, are scarcely known to many. This surge of diseases is triggered by poverty, climate change, war, political instability, refugee crises, accelerating urbanization, and sadly, growing anti-science sentiment. Yemen is an example of how violent conflict and poverty combined to ignite severe disease spread, a cholera epidemic. Physician and vaccine scientist Hotez highlights the value of "vaccine diplomacy." He shows how linking science and outreach via vaccine initiatives that provide vaccines to countries in need or assist with vaccine development and distribution advance global health, foreign policy, and, ultimately. peace. He extols vaccines as "humankind's single greatest invention" and points to their unrivaled impact on world health. The chapter, "Global Health Security and the Rise in Anti-science" is a masterful dissection of vaccine hesitancy and the misinformation movement. Even now, some vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles and diphtheria, are resurgent. Hotez convincingly explains why science and public health are bigger than boundaries, more powerful than political differences. For more on vaccines, see Core Collection, p.16.