COVID-19: What do we know now? What does this mean for what’s next?

We are now in the sixth month of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much has shifted and evolved in these past few months. This seminar will revisit the state-of-the-science with an eye to understanding what we know, and of central importance, how what we know influences what comes next in prevention, treatment, and the effect of the pandemic on our daily lives. Moderated by Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH and featuring panelists Ronald Corley, PhD, Davidson Hamer, MD, and Patricia Hibberd, MD, PhD.

For more information about Boston University’s COVID-19 response, visit bu.edu/covid-19-information.

About the panelists:

Ronald B. Corley, PhD, Chair, Department of Microbiology & Director, National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories

Dr. Corley is the Director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). The NEIDL is dedicated to research in the basic sciences of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and advancing discoveries translating into diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. Dr. Corley’s role is to build the scientific and support enterprise of the NEIDL into a national/international resource emphasizing collaborative transdisciplinary research, and to build on its reputation as a key contributor to the understanding of emerging pathogens and the infectious diseases they cause – while all the time making safety and security the utmost priority.

Davidson H. Hamer, MD, Professor, Global Health & Medicine, School of Public Health & School of Medicine
Davidson Hamer, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FASTMH, FISTM is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine. Dr. Hamer, a board-certified specialist in infectious diseases with a particular interest in tropical infectious diseases, has extensive field experience in neonatal and child survival research including studies of micronutrient interventions, maternal and neonatal health, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrheal diseases. During the last 20+ years, he has supervised and provided technical support to more than 50 studies in developing countries that evaluated interventions for improving neonatal survival, improving access for pregnant women to emergency obstetrical care, treatment and prevention of malaria, HIV/AIDS, micronutrient deficiencies, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia.

Patricia L. Hibberd, MD, PhD, Chair & Professor, Global Health, School of Public Health & Professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine
Dr. Patricia Hibberd, MD, PhD is the Chair of Global Health in the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Hibberd is also a professor of Global Health for the BUSPH and professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases for the BU Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Hibberd is a practicing infectious disease consultant who also leads a clinical and translational research program focusing on the prevention and treatment of childhood pneumonia, neonatal sepsis, and diarrhea—the leading killers of children under age 5 worldwide. Dr. Hibberd is also a Paul G. Rogers Society Ambassador for Global Health Research and is currently chair of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the CDC’s STRIVE Trial, testing one of the vaccines (rVSV-ZEBOV) to prevent Ebola in Sierra Leone. She has published more than 300 articles, chapters, and books and serves on advisory boards to many US and international organizations.

About the moderator:
Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH, Dean & Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Sandro Galea is a physician, epidemiologist, and author, and is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, and is a regular contributor to a range of public media, about the social causes of health, mental health, and the consequences of trauma. He has been listed as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences. He is chair of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Galea has received several lifetime achievement awards. Galea holds a medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.