Opening Keynote "Positive Impact of Data Science on Emerging and Reemerging Disease - COVID 19."

Presented by John J. McGowan - Deputy Director for Science Management, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, NIH

"Positive Impact of Data Science on Emerging and Reemerging Disease - COVID 19"

Infectious diseases prevalent in humans and animals are caused by pathogens that once emerged from other animal hosts. In addition to these established infections, new infectious diseases periodically emerge. In extreme cases they may cause pandemics such as COVID-19; in other cases, dead-end infections or smaller epidemics result, for example, SARS, Zika, Ebola, Established diseases may also re-emerge, for example by extending geographically or by becoming more transmissible or more pathogenic. Disease emergence reflects dynamic balances and imbalances, within complex globally distributed ecosystems comprising humans, animals, pathogens, and the environment. Scientists (biological, data, epidemiological) are crucial to help us understand the variables needed in responding to or controlling future disease outbreaks Examples from current efforts on HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19 will be discussed and general strategies to make data public health, medical research and clinical trials more interoperable and accessible to the larger community will be discussed.