Some two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, COVID-19 and the successive emergence of variants of concern continue to put the global community, and every nation, under significant stress. While policymakers and the public have mostly focused on the health aspects of the pandemic and have relied overwhelmingly on the availability of vaccines to end the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been paid to many other consequences of the crisis.
On 17 May 2022 at 9:15 CEST, join the International Science Council, alongside the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, for the launch of the new report Unprecedented & Unfinished: COVID-19 and Implications for National and Global Policy, live from the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
As the result of the ISC COVID-19 Outcome Scenarios project, this new report seeks to support the shift in thinking that is required to achieve a more comprehensive ‘worldview’ of pandemics and similar emergencies. It presents tools to map policy domains and scenarios and to observe interactions over approximately a five-year timeline. The lessons outline actions to be taken around an emergency such as a pandemic, both before and after, as well as beyond the sectors of health.
It is a timely report given the current trajectory of the pandemic. During the launch, the ISC will be proposing bold ideas to ensure reinvigorated global cooperation that addresses the structural weaknesses in the UN which inhibit the integration of scientific evidence into the system, particularly around health and science.
Do join us. For journalist enquiries please contact:
Donna Bowater, Marchmont Communications: [email protected]
President of the International Science Council
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNDRR
Vice President of the International Science Council for Outreach and Engagement
Chief Scientist, World Health Organization
Image: A general view shows Serbian military personal setting up beds inside a hall at the Belgrade Fair to accommodate people suffering from mild symptoms of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on March 24, 2020.
Image credit: Vladimir Zivojinovic / AFP