Stellmach) Now is the time for social scientists, funders, global agencies, allied disciplines, and national governments to strategically build core capacities and competencies, and move epidemic social science from the margins to the mainstream. In so doing, social science will challenge the existing status quo. Infectious disease epidemics are increasingly conceived of as events that require socio-political awareness, responses, and solutions. This intensified focus can be seen, for example, in the February 2020 establishment of a COVID-19 Research Roadmap Social Science Working Group by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, various institutional, cultural, and political gaps prevent social science insights on issues such as (mis) trust, (mis/dis) information, the acceptability of laws and mandates, human behaviour and social norms, and stigma and discrimination from being mainstreamed into epidemic response. Based on data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but a