7:15 pm
July 15, 2021
Registration page: A conversation with Carl Zimmer: Science and public health in the post-pandemic age
From the Northern California Science Writers Association registration website:
In 2017, journalist Carl Zimmer and scientist Joe DeRisi met on stage in San Francisco at the World Conference of Science Journalists for a wide-ranging discussion of how genomic technologies championed by DeRisi were transforming the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases, including how such technologies might form the basis of a global early-warning system for emerging pandemics.
Now, just four years later, in-person science writing conferences seem like a distant dream, as we try to regain our footing in the wake of a devastating pandemic that spread like wildfire and profoundly reshaped societies on a global scale.
In this virtual event sponsored by the Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA), DeRisi and Zimmer meet again, this time to reflect on:
- What’s known about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- What went right and what went wrong in our response to COVID, both in the United States and around the world.
- How America’s persistent health inequities and systemic flaws in our public health infrastructure were laid bare by the pandemic, and how we might begin to address them.
- How a worldwide surveillance network could be put in place to better prepare us for future pandemics, even if some governments create “black holes” of information.
- Potential scientific and medical "upsides" that may emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g., new ways of doing science, better vaccines for a range of diseases.