The 2020 Virtual International Conference, hosted by American University and The University of Toronto kicked off with a fascinating plenary session entitled Emerging from the COVID-19 Crisis: The Health Landscape of the Future on Thursday, July 23 2020. Moderated by Dr. Kwame McKenzie, the plenary had three outstanding panelists in Dr. Danielle Martin, Dr. Tim Grant Evans, and Dr. Abdul El Sayed.
Dr. Martin brought up fundamental and painful truths that while difficult, are not insurmountable, in Canada and around the world, reintroducing public health as part of many other conversations and fundamentally about congregate living. Dr. Evans talked about pandemics broadly, as well as directly about COVID-19, and its effects on other issues such as poverty and unemployment. and how while we are all individually agents of public health, the best way to think about it is to see how we can learn from and help each other. Dr. El Sayed touched on the gutting of preventative policies and institutions, how intersections of other policies affect health outcomes and create vulnerability.
One of the main takeaways of the plenary is that it is important to not return to status quo but get to a better perspective on global health, disparities, or both health and finance, and even fundamentally reshift some perspectives.
The full recording of the plenary is available, for free. A brief registration is required and then you will redirected to the video.