09.30, Thursday 18 November 2021
Read a blog from Professor Frances Brodsky FMedSci, former Vice President (International) of the Academy, in which she shares three top lessons learnt from the event.
Read an article in the Lancet from the three speakers, Professor George Gao, Professor Helen Herrman and Dr Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti.
LIVESTREAM: Global pandemic perspectives: public health, mental health and lessons for the future
The 2021 Academy of Medical Sciences & The Lancet International Health Lecture took place virtually on Thursday 18 November 2021 presented by Professor George Gao, Professor Helen Herrman and Dr Matshidiso Moeti.
This lecture reflected upon the global pandemic COVID-19 response and impact from the angles of public health, mental health, and beyond, exploring potential future threats and what can be learned to address these challenges going forwards. Following the Lecture, Professor Richard Horton FMedSci, Editor-in-chief of The Lancet, chaired an open Q&A session between audience members and the speakers.
A livestream of the event is available at the top of this webpage. If you have any questions, please contact fern.brookes@acmedsci.ac.uk
Meet the speakers
Professor George Gao is a member (academician) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Director-General of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Director and Professor of CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Professor Gao obtained his PhD (DPhil) degree from Oxford University, UK and undertook postdoctoral work in both Oxford University and Harvard University. His research interests include enveloped viruses and molecular immunology. His group research is mainly focusing on the enveloped virus entry and release, esp. influenza virus interspecies transmission (host jump), structure-based drug-design and structural immunology. He is also interested in virus ecology, esp. the relationship between influenza virus and migratory birds or live poultry markets and the bat-derived virus ecology and molecular biology. He has published lots of refereed papers (Including papers in Cell, Nature, Science, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA etc.). His research has recently expanded on public health policy and global health strategy.
Professor Helen Herrman is a psychiatrist and public health physician and former President of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA 2017-2020). She is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia, and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Mental Health, Melbourne. She is appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.Her research and development work locally and internationally has focused on public mental health. She directed an area mental health service during Australia’s first national reform of mental health care, and acted for a period as regional advisor in mental health for WHO’s Western Pacific Region based in Manila. She worked with WHO, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and a range of international organisations on the inclusion of mental health promotion in the public health agenda. She has developed research programs in the mental health of marginalised groups, including homeless people and young women and men living in out-of-home care. She led the WPA action plan 2017-2020 supporting the contribution of psychiatrists to global mental health, including the rights of people in adversity to high quality mental health care. She chairs The Lancet-WPA Commission on depression due to report in 2021.
Dr Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti is the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa and the first woman to occupy this position. In February 2020 she was confirmed by the WHO Executive Board after her resounding re-election for a second term. Over the past five years, Dr Moeti has led a Transformation Agenda that is widely acknowledged to have improved WHO’s performance and effectiveness and to have informed the global WHO Transformation. Under Dr Moeti’s leadership tremendous progress has been made, including interruption of wild poliovirus transmission in the WHO African Region – this is the second disease to be eradicated from the Region after small pox 40 years ago. Capacities to respond health emergences like COVID-19 and Ebola have also improved significantly improved. Dr Moeti is a medical doctor and public health expert, with more than 40 years of national and international experience. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Moeti worked with UNAIDS as the Team Leader of the Africa and Middle East Desk in Geneva, with UNICEF as a Regional Advisor, and with Botswana’s Ministry of Health in various capacities. She is a great champion for women in leadership in global health.
