Africa’s Mpox Emergency, Pandemic Game Theory, and Harris on Global Health

Editors' Note

This week, as a deadlier mpox strain transcends borders across sub-Saharan Africa, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared the outbreak a public health emergency ahead of the World Health Organization.

Journalist Linda Nordling explains how the early declaration is a consequence of the delayed assistance Africa received during the COVID-19 pandemic and previous mpox emergencies. (Encore on YouTube Shorts: CFR's Bloomberg Chair in Global Health Thomas Bollyky discusses where the crisis could go from here.)

Continuing the discussion on outbreak assistance, Duke University's David McAdams and Gavin Yamey use game theory to deliberate a solution to pathogen access and benefit sharing—a sticking point in the stalled pandemic agreement negotiations. Their pitch could satisfy both wealthy manufacturing countries and low- or middle-income countries in need of vaccines and therapeutic medicines.

Next, mosquito season is in full swing, so journalist Rachel Nuwer sits down with Susan Madison-Antenucci, the director of parasitology at the New York State Department of Health, and Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Maryland, to discuss the likelihood of malaria becoming endemic in the United States and what could happen if it did.

Journalist Joseph Maina then unpacks the mixed bag of fortunes for Kenya's health-care sector amid a government-encouraged wave of emigration.

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention next week, CFR's Chloe Searchinger and Chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project Anil Cacodcar give the rundown on presidential nominee Kamala Harris's record on global health, including her stances on immigration and Gaza.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor