A main point is that we have knowledge and resources that are key to future crisis management, and as such should be integrated into the plans for crisis management.
Leader for Center for Pandemics and One-Health Research, Gunnveig Grødeland, emphasized in her introduction also the importance of securing good conditions for basic science. The one thing we know about the next pandemic, is that we will be facing a lot of unknown factors. Basic research will provide knowledge on the underlying foundations, upon which we can at times of crisis can form rational extrapolations and decisions. Now is the time for high quality free basic research to provide a better starting point the next time, but it is also the time for a broader discussion on how we as a society can avoid polarization to facilitate rational crisis management.
