The Emerging Pandemic of Coronavirus and the Urgent Need for Public Health Leadership

There is ample precedent for public health officials directing the control of emerging pandemics. Perhaps most notably, in the early 1960s, Alexander D. Langmuir, MD, Director of the Epidemic Intelligence Service and Epidemiology Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to work closely with Donald A. Henderson, MD, Chief of the Virus Disease Surveillance Program at the CDC. Langmuir first introduced the idea of surveilling communicable diseases of national importance, and Henderson applied rigorous and evidenced-based public health principles and methodologies to the eradication of smallpox.

The surveillance of communicable diseases of national importance was first described by Langmuir as the critical watchfulness over the distribution and trends of incidence through the systematic collection, consolidation, and regular dissemination of data to all who need to know.1 Since that time, as noted by Henderson, surveillance systems have increased in number and sophistication with advances in data collection, analysis, and communication.2 From influenza3 to smallpox,4 the establishment of systematic reporting systems and prompt action based on results were critical factors. Over the course of just slightly more than a decade, during the tenures of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, utilizing evidence-based leadership, these physicians led both US and worldwide efforts that resulted in smallpox becoming the first human disease ever eradicated from the face of the earth.