The Past, Present, and Future of Pandemics: A Retrospective on COVID-19

BIDS arranged a public lecture titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Pandemics: A Retrospective on COVID-19” on 7 June (Wednesday). The lecture was held at BIDS conference room at 2.30 pm. The speaker of the public lecture was Dr. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Professor of Economics, Yale University. BIDS researchers, Media personalities and academicians were present through offline and online. Professor Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak described the pandemic as an ultimate economic shock for poorer countries. Dr Mobarak suggested that low-income countries could share the leanings among each other. He mentioned of that he was really impressed with the way Sierra Leone was managing the (covid-19) pandemic relative to the most south Asian countries as because they had the experience of Ebola. Another lesson learnt from the pandemic was that global organizations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) were in need of more information and evidence, which the LMIC countries could provide. He also talked about the 'NORM' model of masking, which has been an initiative by an NGO in Bangladesh and researchers from Yale University. Meeting recording link here