Beyond COVID-19: Fundamental principles that shape pandemics

MedicalXpress | août 05, 2026

Every pandemic is different. Nevertheless, certain commonalities can be identified across all pandemics. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS), together with an interdisciplinary team of experts, have compiled 10 fundamental mechanisms that can be used to describe the development of pandemics. The study, published in eClinicalMedicine, brings together insights from epidemiology, sociology, mathematics, physics, political science, psychology and public health.