How can pandemics be prevented?

The new coronavirus is spreading quickly despite an extraordinary quarantine in China. The Washington Post reports more than 4,400 people in China have been infected, and 106 have died. Five cases have been confirmed in the United States, according to NBC News.

Pandemics are nothing new, says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "The bottom line lesson is pandemics happen — they happened before we were here, they’re happening now, and they’ll continue to happen." Fauci and other public health experts at Aspen Ideas: Health said global travel, the development of antibiotics, and working across borders make fighting today's infectious diseases challenging.

• Explore our collection: Going viral: Infectious disease in the 21st century

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"For each virus, we have to figure out what its Achilles heel is — so what part of our immune system is going to be able to get rid of that virus? And that is a long process."

Hear more from Nancy Sullivan, chief of the Biodefense Research Section at the Vaccine Research Center, in the Health session Pandemics and the Existential Threat to Global Security.