“The early warning disease network that alerted the world to the original SARS outbreak and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be in peril.”
“In February 2003, it was ProMED that alerted the world to the fact that a new disease that caused pneumonia had started to spread in China’s Guangdong province. That disease became known as SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome. In September 2012, an Egyptian doctor working in Saudi Arabia wrote to ProMED to reveal he had treated a patient who died from pneumonia triggered by a new coronavirus, a camel virus we now know as MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome. Just before midnight on Dec. 30, 2019, a ProMED “RFI” post — request for information — was the first warning the outside world received of a fast-growing outbreak in Wuhan, China. That was the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“”In its post dated July 14, the ISID revealed it had been having trouble raising the money needed to sustain ProMED. A fundraising drive that aimed for $1 million brought in $20,000. “To put it frankly, ProMED is in dire financial straits,” the post said.”
This doesn’t seem very expensive to sustain, and losing ProMED would be a step backwards when we’re aiming for an effective global early warning system—surely a group of EA donors could save ProMED?
You can directly donate here—https://isid.org/donate/ but it might make sense to get in touch with ProMED before making large donations.
ProMED, platform which alerted the world to Covid, might collapse—can EA donors fund it?
https://www.statnews.com/2023/08/03/promed-early-warning-system-on-disease-outbreaks-appears-near-collapse/
“The early warning disease network that alerted the world to the original SARS outbreak and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be in peril.”
“In February 2003, it was ProMED that alerted the world to the fact that a new disease that caused pneumonia had started to spread in China’s Guangdong province. That disease became known as SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome. In September 2012, an Egyptian doctor working in Saudi Arabia wrote to ProMED to reveal he had treated a patient who died from pneumonia triggered by a new coronavirus, a camel virus we now know as MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome. Just before midnight on Dec. 30, 2019, a ProMED “RFI” post — request for information — was the first warning the outside world received of a fast-growing outbreak in Wuhan, China. That was the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“”In its post dated July 14, the ISID revealed it had been having trouble raising the money needed to sustain ProMED. A fundraising drive that aimed for $1 million brought in $20,000. “To put it frankly, ProMED is in dire financial straits,” the post said.”
This doesn’t seem very expensive to sustain, and losing ProMED would be a step backwards when we’re aiming for an effective global early warning system—surely a group of EA donors could save ProMED?
You can directly donate here—https://isid.org/donate/ but it might make sense to get in touch with ProMED before making large donations.