Cultivating our ability to adapt

Published: 21 Sep 2017

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At the second Raffles Dialogue hosted by NUS Medicine in September 2017, Professor John Wong, chief executive of the National University Health System (NUHS), in his opening address, urged the audience to consider Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, published in the mid-1800s, which emphasised that neither intelligence nor physical strength was the critical factor for survival. Instead, the key to survival is the ability to adapt to change. More than 200 years later, this need to adapt is more pressing than ever.

A way to adapt for the human race is to embrace available life-saving innovations such as vaccines, which is often lauded as one of the great success stories in public health – at least for those who have access to the vaccines and those who trust and accept them. This could be the key to our survival and the future of well-being and human security.

News Coverage

• The Straits Times, 15 September 2017, Science, pB11