Financial Times: Responding to pandemics: new ways of raising finance, and fast
Prashant Yadav, senior fellow at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, and Akash Goel, physician and journalist and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper

“…As the threat of pandemics is becoming more real, it is paramount to create robust systems at the international, national, and local levels to cope with such outbreaks. … We propose a few innovative ways to encourage both pandemic financing and rapid disbursement of funds. … [Returns on investments in health systems] would accrue not only from population health improvements over time but more directly from decreased cost of borrowing and greater [foreign direct investment (FDI)] flows. For rapid disbursement of funding, new models based on parametric pandemic insurance could fill the need for early financing of pandemics. Countries could insure themselves against pandemic risk in much the same way as they insure themselves against hurricanes and other natural disasters. … The combination of new and emerging infections, increasing drug resistance, population density, and transnational travel all add to the challenge of responding to pandemics in the 21st century…” (5/19).