PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — While many people would prefer to forget about the COVID-19 pandemic and move on from those years forever, the fact is that pandemics are an increasingly common part of modern life, says Professor of Epidemiology Jennifer Nuzzo.    

In a brief video interview, Nuzzo, who directs the Pandemic Center at Brown University’s School of Public Health, explained the factors that increase the chances of a new global viral pandemic, including the widespread emergence of new diseases that are able to spread more easily across communities and geographic borders because of climate change and rapid air travel. 

“The key in thinking about pandemics is that this is not just a kind of niche public health problem that only happens once in a century,” Nuzzo said. “We see these events happen quite regularly, and when they do, they really do affect all of society.”

The key to successfully navigating the future, Nuzzo said, is for experts and society at large to understand the many disparate ramifications of these events.

“That’s one of the reasons why I came to Brown: so that I could learn from other disciplines so that we could better understand how pandemics affect our politics, our economy — how pandemics affect us as a society,” Nuzzo said.