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About Us

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Our Story

Preventing Pandemics at the Source began to take shape in January of 2020 - just as COVID-19 was beginning to spread across the world. The origins of our work, however, go back much further. 

Having previously worked to help build the field of planetary health, Dalberg Catalyst leadership knew well before COVID-19 hit that a zoonotic pandemic was likely to occur sooner rather than later. As the disease began making headlines, the team jumped into action - designing a plan for how the global community could attack this problem and vetting it with over 70 experts and organizations (including scientists, policymakers, campaigners, and more) in the process. 

In the summer of 2020, the Catalyst team - led by CEO Sonila Cook and in partnership with former Rainforest Alliance President and current Preventing Pandemics at the Source Advisor Nigel Sizer - convened a group of prominent conservation and global health leaders to start a formal conversation on how the global community could prevent pandemics at the source. This convening served as the unofficial launchpad for the initiative’s Coalition - a collection of leading conservation, health, and COVID-survivor organizations that are working together to ensure that spillover prevention measures are included as part of a comprehensive plan to prevent future pandemics.

Since then, Preventing Pandemics at the Source has supported scientific research to prove the link between the destruction of nature and increased pandemic risk; influenced pandemic-related policies in the U.S. and across the world; promoted a suite of nature-based solutions for stopping spillover; and brought pandemic prevention at the source into the mainstream media. And we’re just getting started.

Together, we can address the root causes of zoonotic pandemics.

We can save lives, promote equity, protect nature, and preserve the climate - all at once.

We can stop pandemics before they start.

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