Pandemic Center

Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH

Director of the Pandemic Center, Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health
pandemic_center@brown.edu
Research Profile
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Biography

Jennifer Nuzzo is a nationally and globally recognized leader on global health security, public health preparedness and response, and health systems resilience. Together with colleagues from the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Economist Impact, she co-leads the development of the first-ever Global Health Security Index, which benchmarks 195 countries’ public health and healthcare capacities and capabilities, their commitment to international norms and global health security financing, and socioeconomic, political, and environmental risk environments.

In addition to her scholarly work, Nuzzo regularly advises national governments and for-profit and nonprofit organizations on pandemic preparedness and response, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a pandemic advisor for Impact Assets’ Stop the Spread Campaign. She is currently a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) Standing Committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center for Preparedness and Response.

Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fox News, Politico, The Hill, and The Boston Globe. She was featured in Debunking Borat, a television series on Amazon Prime Video, and her work was featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. She served as COVID Advisor for the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

 

Recent News

New York Times

Measles Cases Hit Record High, 25 Years After U.S. Eliminated the Disease

There have now been more measles cases in 2025 than in any other year since the contagious virus was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to new data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The grim milestone represents an alarming setback for the country’s public health and heightens concerns that if childhood vaccination rates do not improve, deadly outbreaks of measles — once considered a disease of the past — will become the new normal.

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The National News Desk

Measles elimination status at risk with cases surging this year

(TNND) — The U.S. has managed to keep a lid on measles for a quarter of a century.

That’s now at risk.

Johns Hopkins’ Center for Outbreak Response Innovation reports 1,277 confirmed cases of measles so far this year, which eclipsed 2019 to become the highest annual total since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

And we have half the year left.

“We're deeply worried about it,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center.

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Healio

RFK Jr. pulls US funding for global vaccine alliance

Key takeaways:
The U.S. is pulling funding from Gavi, claiming the alliance neglected vaccine safety data.
Experts said the decision is not actually about safety but about casting doubt on vaccines.

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Vanity Fair

Asbestos, Measles, Coal Plants: How Kennedy and Trump are Making America “Healthy” Again

As secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it his mission to “make America healthy again.” Yet so far—and you may want to sit down for this—it appears that Worm Guy’s actions, and those of the Trump administration, are at odds with that goal. And by “at odds” we mean they’ve done a whole bunch of stuff that may actually make the people of this country very sick. Sure, Kennedy is pushing to phase out artificial food dyes, but he‘s also undermining life-saving vaccines and spreading misinformation about medications that some people require to get out of bed in the morning—to say nothing of the fake studies in his big report on children’s health. Meanwhile, the Trump administration also wants to keep some forever chemicals linked to cancer in the drinking water, has refused to allow coal plants to close, and obliterated scientific research—the kind that makes breakthroughs and finds cures for diseases.

A running list of the not-so-healthy moves by Kennedy and Trump include:
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Scientific American

This is How We Fight Bird Flu If H5N1 Becomes the Next Human Pandemic

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. This is the final episode of our three-part series on bird flu.

(You can listen to episode one here and episode two here.)

On Wednesday we met scientists who are getting their hands dirty with dairy cows and poultry to better understand how H5N1 bird flu is spreading. Today we’ll take a look at efforts to create vaccines for H5N1—and learn why eggs are so critical to the vaccine-making process.

Our host today is Naeem Amarsy, a multimedia journalist based in New York City. Here’s Naeem now.
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Jennifer Nuzzo in the News

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The National News Desk

RFK Jr. overhauls vaccine advisory panel; doctor calls it 'dark day for public health'

(TNND) — Health officials are sounding alarms over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to overhaul a vaccine advisory board with his appointees.

The Health and Human Services secretary announced Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he was replacing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The ACIP is an expert scientific panel that develops vaccine recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The immunization schedule, or list of recommended shots, for kids is based on the panel’s advice to the CDC.

The ACIP recommendations have consequences for which vaccines insurers are willing to cover and which vaccines doctors recommend to their patients.

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News from SPH

Are we ready?

Five years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health experts look to Washington as they weigh in on where our biosurveillance tools and preparedness systems stand now: What’s changed, what hasn’t and what must be built to make us ready for the next pandemic?
CFR - Youtube

CFR 4/2 Global Affairs Expert Webinar: Complex Public Health Emergencies

Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University's School of Public Health, leads the conversation on complex public health emergencies.

This work represents the views and opinions solely of the author. The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher, and takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.