Imagine a future in which the lessons from COVID-19 have become well known and absorbed by both professionals in relevant professions, and the general public. This will facilitate effective planning in a similar circumstance. There has been reporting already that some Pacific countries (South Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand) that had experienced H1N1 and SARS had an easier time making and implementing plans to minimize the risks with COVID, because everybody already agreed on the basics about how to handle a pandemic. The public education campaign didn’t have to start from zero.
What can help this happen? The employers of doctors, public health officials, public policy wonks, etc. could make public reporting a component of their jobs. One resource for doing this is Wikipedia (as well as Wikidata and the other related wikis). Many doctors and scientists already contribute to Wikipedia, but employers would do well to make it a requirement that they do, and give them the training to ensure that they do it effectively. This will take time - I’m not advocating to add a new task for already busy workers. But planning future job descriptions, building training programs, building review and evaluation procedures…none of this is alien to corporate culture.
