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the pandemic hit. In fact, the lack of coordination between the partially staffed groups became part of the problem. What we need at both the global and country levels is a well-funded organization with enough full-time experts in all the necessary areas, the credibility and authority that come with being a public institution, and a clear remit to work on nothing but preventing pandemics. I call the global team the GERM--Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization--team, and their job should be to wake up every day asking themselves the same questions: "Is the world ready for the next outbreak? What can we do to be better prepared?" They should be fully paid, regularly drilled, and prepared to mount a coordinated response to the next threat of a pandemic. My back-of-the-napkin estimate is that GERM would need 2,000 to 3,000 full-time employees. Their skills should run the gamut: epidemiology, genetics, drug and vaccine development, data systems, diplomacy, rapid response, logistics, computer modeling, and communications. GERM should be managed by the World Health Organization, the only group that could give it global credibility. It should have a diverse workforce, with a decentralized staff working in places around the world but paid out of a central fund. Most of GERM's staff would be based in the countries where outbreaks are most likely to happen, though some would sit in the WHO's regional offices and at its headquarters in Geneva. When there's a potential pandemic looming, the world needs expert analysis of early data points that can confirm the threat. GERM's data scientists would build a system for monitoring reports of clusters of suspicious cases. Epidemiologists would monitor reports from national governments and work with the WHO to identify anything that looks like an outbreak. Productdevelopment experts would advise governments and companies on the highest-priority drugs and