QF, WISH to discuss vaccines, future of Covid-19 pandemic
Local and international health experts to hold virtual discussion on the path ahead
Health experts from Qatar and around the world will focus on the hopes and fears surrounding Covid-19 vaccines, and how the pandemic may unfold in 2021, as Qatar Foundation’s Education City Speaker Series returns online on February 24.
In collaboration with the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), the platform for conversations on the major topics affecting the world will host its first event of the year, turning the spotlight on vaccine development and rollout, the emerging new variants of Covid-19, and what the world needs to do to combat and prevent fresh waves of infection.
The virtual discussion is titled An Injection of Hope: Do Vaccines Mean an End to the Pandemic Is in Sight?, and will invite its local and global audience to put questions to leading figures and practitioners in healthcare at a time when, as vaccines begin to be administered around the world, many countries are simultaneously seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Joining the conversation organised by QF and its global healthcare initiative WISH will be two representatives from the World Health Organisation: Dr Ahmed alMandhari, its regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, an area which includes the Mena region; and Dr Matshidiso Moeti, its regional director for Africa.
They will give their perspectives on vaccines and the path the pandemic may take from here alongside guest speakers Dr Abdullatif alKhal, chairman of Qatar’s National Pandemic Preparedness Committee and deputy chief medical officer at Hamad Medical Corporation; and Dr Jerome Kim, director-general of the International Vaccine Institute. The session will be moderated by journalist, newsreader and TV presenter Kirsty Wark.
In April 2020, during the early weeks of the pandemic, Dr alMandhari, Dr Moeti, and Dr Kim participated in the Education City Speaker Series’ first online edition, which focused on the immediate global response to the coronavirus crisis. Ten months on, they are returning to QF’s global platform for dialogue to assess, along with Dr al-Khal, how the world looks now as it continues to tackle the challenge of a lifetime, and what the coming months may hold.
Next week’s discussion will be the seventh online Education City Speaker Series event, after the platform – launched by QF in 2018 – switched to virtual form amid the pandemic. Since then, it has attracted tens of thousands of global viewers for conversations about the impact of Covid-19 on mental health, race and identity, the future of education, regenerative development, and how people with disabilities are viewed in society, as well as its first Arabic-only edition, Education City Speaker Series Bel Arabi.
An Injection of Hope: Do Vaccines Mean an End to the Pandemic Is in Sight? takes place from 3.30-4.30pm Doha time on February 24 and will feature a 40-minute discussion followed by a public question-andanswer session. Viewers watching on Microsoft Teams can watch the event with English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Italian subtitles, and the discussion will also be streamed live on QF’s Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Twitter feed. For more information and to register, visit www.qf.org.qa/ecss