Barbara Mahon is acting director of the Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division in CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, having previously led CDC’s COVID-19 emergency response as incident manager. An infectious disease epidemiologist and pediatrician, Mahon worked in academic pediatrics, academic epidemiology, the vaccine industry, and at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At CDC, she has been director of the Division of Bacterial Diseases/National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; CDC lead for the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola (STRIVE); associate director for antimicrobial resistance in the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases; and deputy chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch. Mahon played leadership roles in CDC’s response to the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic and the 2010 introduction of cholera to Haiti.
Previously
Scientists and policymakers all agree that another pandemic is inevitable—and that we are still not prepared. Whether it is a COVID mutation, a bird flu, or something entirely...