Be sure to click previous years to fully appreciate the volume (over 270 found so far) of articles.
While One Health has over the past 15 years established itself in the life sciences, veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences, it remains little known to the public.
Therefore, since January 2020 we have been compiling on this webpage popular media OpEds, Commentaries, Podcasts and other media (including some *scientific articles*) about the coronavirus pandemic that mention and/or call for One Health by name or theory 'because' popular media is read by the 'public'. We believe that these carefully selected articles can help the public, especially law and policy makers, understand our urgent need to implement One Health.
If you know of additional articles that should be listed here, please send them to ohc@onehealthcommission.org. Check back frequently.
To see peer reviewed scientific articles about the current pandemic visit:
On farms sampled at multiple time points, mink tested rRT-PCR positive up to 16 weeks post-onset of increased mortality. Workers likely introduced SARS-CoV-2 to mink, and mink transmitted SARS-CoV-2 to other animal species; mink-to-human transmission was not identified. Our findings provide critical evidence to support interventions to prevent and manage SARS-CoV-2 in people and animals on mink farms and emphasizes the importance of a One Health approach to address emerging zoonoses.
Page 1265 "It is certain that future pandemics will arise from interactions between humans and animals, and that research on viruses will continue with the potential for accidents. It is therefore imperative that society enacts measures to reduce the possibility of both natural spillovers and spillovers from research-related activities, and acts rapidly if these scenarios do occur. Countries must adopt rigorous surveillance over the trade of domestic and wild animals and over research. Calls for One Health approaches to address the risks of the emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases are common among reports on pandemic prevention and preparedness,489,490,492,494 and many reports have called for greater global surveillance and monitoring of disease risks,….."
Author: Arindam Basu In: The World Economic Forum with ‘The Conversation’
The World Health Organization has declared two public health emergencies of international concern within three years - and is urging countries to adopt the One Health approach.
The One Health approach integrates predictive modelling and surveillance used in disease control and climate change to fight infectious diseases.
Experts are warning that new pathogens, particularly those that jump between animals and humans, will become more frequent as habitats change in a warming world.
Authors: Craig Carter, Thomas Monath, Rohini Roopnarine IN: IMPAKTER
As future pandemics are likely to emerge from the coronavirus family of viruses and other zoonotic pathogens, an integrated approach to develop vaccines for zoonotic diseases is essential for success
“We really have to highlight the concept of one health. It’s not only about human health. We have to consider health in animals and the environment. And if you don’t look after these areas, we are the one that suffer at the end.” .............. "Right now, such efforts are being conducted mostly piecemeal, often added to non-covid work that is already funded. She and other scientists say a more coordinated global surveillance approach that will target a range of species during different seasons and in different geographic areas is needed to stop a potential new generation of variants."
Authors: Vora NM, Hanna L, Lieberman S , Vale MM, Plowright RK, Bernstein AS In: Nature
Decision-makers discussing landmark agreements on health and biodiversity must include four actions to reduce the risk of animals and people exchanging viruses.
New research finds that climate change accelerates the spread of viruses among species causing increasingly frequent disease outbreaks. Moving forward: What is needed to prevent rising zoonotic infections – the One Health approach.
Authors: R. Rupasinghe, B.M. López, T. Wibawa In: COSMOS
The World Health Organization recently launched a roadmap to address the urgent issue of the threat of animal-to-human diseases known as zoonosis, particularly neglected tropical diseases, as humans increasingly encroach on environments previously only inhabited by animals.
Top virologists in India inform virus research in India needs to improve. A concept called One Health has gained momentum after the outbreak of the pandemic, even as scientists across the globe are struggling to pre-empt incidents of infectious agents jumping species.
“We need collective recognition of these public health dangers, and all Arctic Circle states should address them with greater urgency and specific mitigation and adaptation plans. And to be effective, they require a coordinated and collaborative multidisciplinary preventative approach that involves the widest range of epidemiologists, virologists, human and animal health specialists, social scientists, and other specialists. ……In sum, a One Health approach must be part of the solution. Once adopted, it will move us from good intentions to concrete action.”
"Governments and health administrations need to invest more in primary healthcare. This has become increasingly apparent as the covid-19 pandemic has progressed and changed with the current omicron wave, but it is also an investment for a post-pandemic future.................... [W]e must build approaches that are more sustainable, less wasteful, and which give due attention to the protection of local and global ecosystems and the environment, in accordance with the “One Health” philosophy."
Authors: Vandewoude Sue, Bosco-Lauth Angela, Mayo Christie In: The Conversation
How are so many animals catching the coronavirus? And what does this mean for human and animal health?....The list of infected animals so far includes more than a dozen species. But in reality, infections may be much more widespread, as very few species and individual animals have been tested. This has real implications for human health. Animals can not only spread pathogens like the coronavirus, but also can be a source of new mutations.
Prevention is major lesson from current pandemic and the Nipah virus vaccine now under development shows the way forward.
"While the world and much of the medical and scientific community focus on dealing with COVID using effective vaccines and medications, other virus killers lurk in hiding which can become epidemics or pandemics, many emerging from the interface of the human/animal/ecosystem, One Health."
Global One Health and Welfare is the only way to save our future: Public and non-public voices must speak out and make the interface between the environment, human, animal, and plant health a priority.
The COVID-19 pandemic represented a global earthquake that made the review of health policies aimed at strengthening common governance necessary. The paper analyses the reasons for which the One Health approach has become fundamental in the control of pandemic phenomena, by arguing the necessity to place it at the basis not only of health policies but also of intersectoral policies. The documents of the world organizations published before and after the pandemic were analyzed and studied in order to unpack the close relationship between new lifestyles and the increase of health risks. It emerged that the One Health approach is a paradigm that has been advanced for more than 30 years, but due to the inadequacy of local and world health policies, this approach was never translated into concrete actions to protect health, feeding problems at the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having ascertained that the adoption of a One Health approach can no longer be postponed, this must be insisted on several interconnected sectors that establish the new concept of healthcare which, in addition to being interdisciplinary, necessarily takes on a global perspective.
Veterinarians have had a principal role as sentinels for disease emergence. They have been the principal proponents of the One Health concept that integrates human and animal welfare broadly and infectious diseases in particular (42). A country with few veteri-narians, many reservoir species, and many people who consume or trade wildlife will be at greater risk for zoonoses. Figure 4 shows the ratio of veterinarians to nonveterinarians against the geographical size of a nation."
Authors: Samira Mubareka, Claire Jardine Joe Copper Jack In: The Globe and Mail
" One Health recognizes that human health is connected to the health of other animals and the environment and stresses the need for a collaborative approach. This requires that multiple disciplines and stakeholders work together to investigate challenges like SARS-CoV-2- from the molecular level to the level of populations. "
Last September, health ministers from G20 nations, including India, met in Rome to discuss pandemic threats from nature. Biological Weapons Convention experts, meanwhile, gathered in Geneva, deliberating on rising threats from terrorists misusing microbes.
