Enabling Accountability for Effective Outbreak Reporting by Developing Standards for Transparency (ORBIT)

There are no established standards or expectations about what information public health authorities should report to the public during outbreaks. This persistent blind spot significantly hampers our ability to interrupt an outbreak or epidemic. Currently, independent experts and leaders must rely on ad hoc and incomplete sources of information, which hinders the capacity of other public health officials and members of the public to respond efficiently and effectively. 

This project aims to help domestic and international leaders improve essential data-reporting transparency and accountability during an outbreak and subsequent public health response. 

To achieve this, the project will: 

1. Convene a Delphi consensus panel of experts to develop reporting guidelines for what, when, and how to report information about an outbreak to the public. 

2. Promote the adoption of the resulting guidelines through policy engagement, advocacy, and publicity. 

Project team lead: Caitlin Rivers, PhD, MPH

Project team: Vanessa Grégoire, MSc; Alex W. Zhu, MSPH 

Project supported by: Open Philanthropy Project