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

Illinois Public Media: The 21st Show

From the fight against Malaria to USAID funding cuts to new vaccine policies-how do all these changes impact public health?

Public health in America is undergoing dramatic changes, from changing access to vaccines to defunding research into treatment and prevention of diseases. This is all the work of the second Trump administration, more specifically, the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior and it’s having effects beyond America.

In recent years, the U.S. has played a major role in battling malaria, providing more than a billion dollars annually to fight it. That is, until this year, when the Trump administration froze foreign aid.

The effects of that are covered in a recent article from the publication Science. Public health experts weigh in on that and the broader changes in public health in America.
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NOTUS

RFK Jr. Touted a CDC Biosurveillance Program That Doesn’t Appear to Exist Yet

When Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his vision of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a recent op-ed, he cited one of the agency’s biosurveillance programs as a prime example of the agency’s capabilities: the Biothreat Radar Detection System.

But the “Biothreat Radar Detection System” doesn’t appear to exist — at least, not yet, sources inside and outside the CDC told NOTUS. And new details about how the program might apply AI to biosurveillance are giving biosecurity experts some pause.

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The National News Desk

'Vaccines work,' GOP senators who are also doctors push back on RFK Jr.

(TNND) — Republican senators who are also doctors stood up for vaccines during this week's hearing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic.

Senators of both parties grilled Kennedy over his statements and actions since taking the helm at Health and Human Services, including the big changes to vaccine policy.

“I'm approaching this as a doctor, not as a senator,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana. “I am concerned about children's health, seniors’ health, all of our health.”

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KFGO Radio News & Views

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo joins Joel Heitkamp after RFK Jr. was pressed by Senate Democrats and Republic...

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. Her work focuses on global health security, public health preparedness and response, and health systems resilience. She joins Joel Heitkamp on "News and Views" to talk about Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's Senate hearing yesterday, and the importance of vaccine transparency.


(Joel Heitkamp is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His award-winning program, “News & Views,” can be heard weekdays from 8 – 11 a.m. Follow Joel on X/Twitter @JoelKFGO.)

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Scientific American

Experts Warn of Growing Threats amid CDC Resignations

With the CDC in disarray and its future uncertain, this episode explores what’s driving the exodus of agency staff and what this means for national health security.
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The National News Desk

Freedom or risk? Florida moves to end vaccine mandates

(TNND) — Florida plans to end all vaccine mandates, a move criticized by leading medical groups.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made the announcement Wednesday at an event focused on “medical freedom” in the Sunshine State.

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and, and slavery,” Ladapo said of vaccine mandates.

Ladapo said he doesn’t have the right to tell people what they must put in their bodies.

“Your body, your body is a gift from God,” he said at the event.

Ladapo called vaccine mandates “immoral.”
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Jennifer Nuzzo in the News

 See all Pandemic Center news
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.