Major findings captured in the policy insight series include:

Multidisciplinary, international research collaboration, combined with high-quality, varied and longitudinal cohort data is necessary to help policy-makers respond to pandemic questions about multivalent immunity and treatment options for different contexts and populations.

Vaccines and their boosters have proven to be a safe and effective way to lessen the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the general population, and especially on fragile populations.

Population behavior was a major factor for COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, as individual traits and characteristics affected vaccine access and uptake.

Pandemic response requires vigilance regarding viral evolution and must include longitudinal patient data monitoring, especially among immunocompromised and other at-risk populations.

Although children overall were less severely affected by COVID-19, adolescents experienced post COVID symptoms overlapping with other viral infections, and children from low- and middle-income countries were disproportionately affected.

While COVID-19 has become endemic, it still presents great risk to vulnerable and immunecompromised people, who require repeated vaccination for protection. Tailoring interventions to specific contexts is key to ensuring universal benefit from pandemic response.

Long-term international collaboration is urgent and essential for monitoring pathogenesis, variants of concern, virulence of new variants, and response to vaccines for pandemic prevention and response.

Public health administrative and register-based data needs to be improved regarding data harmonization and sharing to manage international pandemic response efficiently and effectively.

Long COVID continues to disable people and requires further study.