Understanding the Economics of Microbial Threats: Proceedings of a Workshop (2018)
Chapter: Appendix A: Workshop Statement of Task
Appendix A
Workshop Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will plan a 1.5-day public workshop that will examine the interaction of economic activity and microbial threats, including infectious disease outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance. A critical focus of the workshop will be to discuss the need for key metrics of risk and analytical tools to provide a comprehensive understanding of the economic risk that microbial threats pose. The workshop will also focus on exploring approaches to incorporate estimates of infectious disease risk to overall macroeconomic assessments of economic growth in countries to incentivize action that minimize these threats. Specifically, this workshop will feature invited presentations and discussions on topics, including
- Economic costs from infectious diseases that may place a disproportionate burden on low- and middle-income countries but affect regional and global stability because of interconnected financial systems worldwide
- Gaps in assessing economic costs of microbial threats through multiple channels of disruption, including dynamics of fear-based behavioral change
- Critical opportunities and challenges to model and develop metrics of risk, including identifying and using appropriate data and dealing with uncertainty, and to build analytical tools to understand the potential economic consequences of infectious diseases in the short, medium, and long term
- Strategies to incorporate estimates of infectious disease risk to overall macroeconomic assessments of economic growth to ensure the risks are reflected in financial markets and business investment decisions or influence flows of development assistance, and to link these assessments to incentives for action to minimize the threats
- Implications for the International Health Regulations, particularly on trade and travel measures, as well as for upstream and downstream strategies, policies, and interventions—such as effective communication messages, simulation exercises, investment decisions, and One Health approaches—that various sectors of government, multilateral institutions, and others may carry out in preventing and mitigating the economic costs
- Collaboration and coordination mechanisms among various stakeholders and across sectors in public health, animal health, economics, travel, trade, commerce, and agriculture, among others
Workshop speakers and discussants will contribute perspectives from government, academia, private, and nonprofit sectors. The committee will plan and organize the workshop, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. A proceedings of the presentations and discussions at the workshop will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.
