This graphic illustrates how pandemic preparation in Switzerland has developed over the past 25 years as a step-by-step learning process in step with international developments. The most important driving forces behind the accelerating national and international pandemic preparations were the epidemics and pandemics that occurred between 2002 and 2010: above all the SARS outbreak in Asia in 2002/03, the worldwide spread of the avian flu virus H5N1 from 2004 and the “swine flu” pandemic in 2009/10.
For more on Switzerland’s coronavirus crisis management during the first wave of the pandemic, read our newly published Bulletin 2020 in Swiss Security Policy here (in German).