Nancy Messonnier, MD, Executive Director for Pandemic Prevention and Health Systems at the Skoll Foundation, began her public health career in 1995 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and held a number of leadership posts across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She joined the Skoll Foundation in 2021 to lead its pandemics and health system strengthening work globally.
In this video, Messonnier talks about how misinformation has accelerated the COVID-19 pandemic and how pandemic prevention and response requires trust in institutions, expertise, and data. “Trust wasn't broken overnight and it's not going to be restored overnight,” says Messonnier. “If you don't trust your own healthcare provider, the Surgeon General, the health department, and the CDC, then frankly, it's easy to find information that is unreliable, uncurated, and just wrong. As we proceed through this pandemic, we're going to have to find a way to rebuild trust in those organizations and try to repair the fractures that we've seen in our society.”
