A Whole Society Approach to COVID-19: Dispatches from China
Organizers:
Professor Claudia Chaufan, Graduate Program Director, Health, York University
Professor Hao Li, Global Health Institute, Wuhan University
Sponsor:
Knowledge Mobilization Unit, Innovation York
The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, upending millions of lives and taxing public-health and social systems worldwide. Effectively fighting an unprecedented pandemic requires global cooperation. While adopting a whole-of-society approach to fight COVID-19, China has also reached out to the world to share precious knowledge and resources with the global community.
In this lecture series attendees will learn from China’s experience with COVID-19. The series features faculty members from universities in China, with research and lived experience from the world centre of the outbreak. Professor Claudia Chaufan, Director of the Graduate Program in Health at York, will introduce the speakers and K.J. Noh, independent scholar and expert in the geopolitics of Asia, will facilitate the Q&A after the lectures. Graduate students from Chinese universities will be present to address questions from the audience.
Program schedule:
Webinar 1 (Thursday, October 29, 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST): The experience of the outbreak; initial attempts to control an unknown disease; informing the WHO and the world (initial communications with the WHO and the CDC and brief report on China-WHO study commission led by Canadian Dr. Bruce Aylward). Speaker: Prof. Hao Li, Wuhan University
Webinar 2 (Thursday, November 26, 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST): A “whole of society” approach; containing the spread (discussion includes the role of case identification, contact tracing, selective isolation, lockdowns, and so on); balancing health and economic concerns. Speaker: Prof. Hao Li, Wuhan University
Webinar 3 (Thursday, January 28, 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST): How to achieve a world free from COVID-19; what COVID-19 can teach about global health governance. Speaker: Prof. Shiyi Tu, Fudan University
Webinar 4 (Thursday, February 25, 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST -5 hours UTC/GMT): Dealing with the double burden of COVID-19 and the dominant Western narrative on China (discussion includes the geopolitical dimensions of COVID-19 in the context of the new, Western led Cold War); lessons learned towards greater global health equity. Speaker: Prof. Xiaotong Zhang, Institute of Belt and Road Initiative & Global Governance, Fudan University
Register now at https://yorku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KITyFiBFSeePI8yn9h6ovw
Each webinar will last one hour, with 30-minute for presentations followed by a 30-minute Q&A organized around questions from attendees.
