Foodborne Illness Surveillance: A Model for COVID-19 and Other Future Pandemics?

Foodborne illness and COVID-19 have obvious differences, but they also have marked similarities. Both conditions cause significant morbidity and mortality and long-term consequences that often are underappreciated by the public and even by public health professionals. Surveillance for both COVID-19 and foodborne illness have passive population-based platforms that have some value but also some problems. The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) could be a model for surveillance of COVID-19 (and other future pandemics) and for refining control strategies. Some activities are more dangerous than others for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and although contact tracing could shed light on these risks, local health departments in the U.S. have been too overwhelmed to take advantage of the opportunity. Both foodborne illness and COVID-19 could potentially be better controlled through the application of predictive models based on active surveillance.