For all outbreaks, the notion is to “break the chain” and to break it in as many places as possible. These processes have to balance civic liberty, community motivation and ownership, as well as economic stability. We will look at both nonpharmaceutical interventions for pandemic control, including physical distancing and contact tracing, and the promise of vaccination and case management tools, such as drugs, that influence the course and outcome. We will discuss monitoring and following outbreaks to assess the adequacy of control measures and the trade-offs, and use stories from Ebola, COVID-19 and other outbreaks to illustrate these concepts.