Blogpost on biosurveillance in the UK
This project was a runner-up for the "Other exceptional project" prize on our Pandemics (Sept 2024) course. The text below is an excerpt from the final project.
Are we doing enough to detect the next pandemic?
An overview of biosurveillance in the UK and the recent collaboration between ONT and the UK government to establish the world's first real-time, pathogen-agnostic biosurveillance system
Imagine if we treated pandemics like fires. We don’t wait for a house to catch fire before taking action—we invest heavily in prevention. Fire safety systems and firefighting teams exist because individuals can’t protect themselves from fires alone. What if we applied the same proactive approach to stopping disease outbreaks?
That’s the idea behind biosurveillance: a system designed to detect and contain infections before they grow into national or global crises. This isn’t just wishful thinking—visionaries like Bill Gates are already championing pandemic prevention systems akin to firefighting. For example, G.E.R.M. (Global Emergency Response and Mobilization) would be a dedicated team ready to spring into action during outbreaks, much like firefighters respond to emergencies.
While the global capacity to detect, track, and analyze infectious diseases has improved dramatically over the past few decades, the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare a harsh truth: our systems are still woefully inadequate at stopping the rapid spread of a novel pathogen. The result? Unimaginable loss and disruption on a global scale.
In this post, I’ll unpack the concept of biosurveillance in simple terms. Then, drawing on my own experiences interning at Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) and living in the UK, I’ll share exciting details about a new biosurveillance system being rolled out in the UK—a collaboration between ONT and the UK government that could mark a turning point in how we manage infectious disease threats.
Why should this matter to you? Because better biosurveillance means fewer pandemics. It means:
- no lockdowns
- not being separated from your family
- a lower risk of societal collapse
In short, it means spotting and stopping outbreaks while they’re still small, localized clusters, rather than letting them escalate into global catastrophes. While international collaboration to prevent patient zero will always be critical, robust biosurveillance is the next best line of defense—and one that could save millions of lives. Don’t you want to be informed on this?
Full project
You can view the full project here.