Published Date: 2023-08-03 01:14:37 EDT Subject: PRO/ALL> ProMED Editors and Moderators suspension of work Archive Number: 20230803.8711549 3 August 2023 Dear friends and readers of ProMED, Some of you were unpleasantly surprised by the letter sent to all ProMED subscribers on 14 July 2023, informing you that, because of severe financial straits, ProMED will be limiting search capabilities and implementing a paid subscription model. Although the letter was signed by "The ProMED Team," we the undersigned want to assure you that we had no prior knowledge of that letter. On the same day, ProMED moderators were informed by ISID that their pay, which is in arrears, would be delayed for at least 2 months. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a wakeup call for organizational leaders and decision-makers around the world of the need for emerging infectious disease surveillance. Despite ProMED's high profile that was earned by alerting the world to the COVID pandemic in its earliest days, the ISID leadership and ProMED administration have been unable to capitalize on the abundant funding that has since been invested into improving early disease detection. Despite the physical distances that separate us as a global virtual network, ProMED moderators and editors have formed a tight knit collegial community over many years. For most of us, creating ProMED's content is a labor of love. However, we cannot be expected to continue working on good will alone. With the loss of our Editor-in-Chief, and no voice in key administrative decisions directly affecting ProMED writers and readers, any such good will has evaporated. It is therefore with great sadness and regret that we, the undersigned, are hereby suspending our work for ProMED. We fervently believe that there is an ongoing need for the kind of rapid, curated disease outbreak reporting that ProMED has provided since its inception almost 30 years ago. ProMED is effectively a 24/7 global news organization that requires proper corporate governance, a stable and adaptable IT infrastructure, and private and corporate fundraising capabilities from its de facto publisher. Unfortunately, such leadership and capacities appear to be beyond the scope and mission of ISID alone and will likely require a co-hosting partnership in a new administrative home with stable funding and a sustainable business model. Therefore, to restore our allegiance and legitimately call ProMED's writers and editors a "ProMED Team," ISID would need to: 1. Partner with one or more outside organizations in hosting ProMED in order to ensure that the fiscal and infrastructure needs of ProMED will be met. 2. Provide us with transparency and voting representation on the ISID executive committee. 3. Ensure the administrative and editorial independence of ProMED's content and subscription policies. This could largely be accomplished by restoring a true Editor-in-Chief position with independent executive authority. Signed, Stuart Handysides (SH), Associate Editor, ProOMED-Global Matt Levison (ML), Associate Editor, ProMED-Global, Top Mod, ProMED-AMR, Bacterial Diseases Mod Leo X. Liu (LXL), Associate Editor, ProMED-Global, Parasitology Moderator Marjorie P. Pollack (MPP), Associate Editor, ProMED-Global, Epidemiology and Surveillance Moderator Maria Jacobs (MJ), Senior Technical Editor Susan Baekeland (SB), Senior Correspondent Pablo Belmonico (PB), Wildlife Moderator Sidi Coulibaly (SC), Top Moderator, PrOMED-FRA Cristina David (CRD), Animal Health Moderator Tam Garland (TG), Animal Disease and Zoonoses Moderator Jorge Gonzalez-Mendoza (JG), ProMED-ESP Moderator Dagmar Hanold (DHA), Plant Diseases Moderator Martin Hugh-Jones (MH3J), Animal Diseases Moderator Laura Kramer (Lk), Viral Diseases Moderator Larry I. Lutwick (LL), Bacterial Diseases Moderator Boubacar Maiga (BM), ProMED-FRA Moderator Anna Orsola (AO), Copy Editor Arnon Shimshony (AS), Animal Disease and Zoonoses Moderator Jaime Torres (JT), Top Moderator, ProMED-ESP. Sok Touch (ST), Top Moderator, ProMED-MBDS Tom Yuill (TY), Viral Diseases Moderator