Unprecedented & Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy

This new report from the ISC outlines plausible scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic to consider the options for achieving the most desirable end to the crisis, highlighting that decisions made over the coming months and years need to be informed not only by short-term priorities but also by long-term challenges, and will serve as an analytical tool for policy-makers to lead to a more optimistic outcome to the pandemic.

Unprecedented & Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy

A result of the Council’s COVID-19 Outcome Scenarios Project, the report Unprecedented and Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy seeks to support the shift in thinking that is required to achieve a more comprehensive ‘worldview’ of pandemics and similar emergencies. It presents tools to map policy domains and scenarios and to observe interactions over approximately a five-year timeline. The lessons outline actions to be taken around an emergency such as a pandemic, both before and after, as well as beyond the sectors of health.


The ISC has developed a Creative Commons version of the report which can be reproduced and printed locally. Please contact james.waddell@council.science for the print file.

Unprecedented & Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy

International Science Council, 2022. Unprecedented & Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy. Paris, France, International Science Council. DOI: 10.24948/2022.03.

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COVID-19 Outcome Scenarios Project

In early 2021, the ISC launched the COVID-19 Outcome Scenarios project, with the aim of outlining a range of scenarios over the mid- and long-term to assist our understanding of the options for achieving an optimistic and fair end to the pandemic.


Image: A general view shows Serbian military personal setting up beds inside a hall at the Belgrade Fair to accommodate people suffering from mild symptoms of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on March 24, 2020.
Image credit: Vladimir Zivojinovic / AFP

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