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 We end by alluding to an implication of the argument of this paper that economics and biomedical science need to be brought together for an improved understanding of pandemics. For example, in the UK while science has played an integral part of the evidence considered when developing policy (Brooks-Pollock et al., 2021), there has been a distinct lack of representation from the economics research community in the various advisory bodies.6 As a result, the evidence presented to government has focused solely on the likely impact of control policies, e.g., closure on schools, contact tracing, on limited health outcomes, numbers of cases, hospital admissions and deaths. However, as we have argued throughout this paper, pandemics do not just make people sick—they affect the entire economy as people adapt and adjust to these new risks. Identifying strategies to manage future pandemics cost-effectively, it is vital that evidence presented to policy makers takes into account these complex interactions between different systems. The key challenge is building strong relationships between the economics and epidemiology modelling communities to ensure better representation on government advisory panels for future pandemics.