The ongoing health, economic and social impact brought about by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, together with potentially long-lasting behavioural, lifestyle and psychological changes in people all around the world, tell us that the novel coronavirus has a further reach than the disease it brings. The COVID-19: Updates from Singapore webinar series has seen a range of perspectives from leading experts in disciplines such as medicine, public health, economics, policy making and science that have shed light on the risks, unknowns and opportunities in this unprecedented time.
Professor Dale Fisher
Chair of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) at the World Health Organisation (WHO)
Associate Professor David Allen
Senior Consultant in the Division of Infectious Diseases at University Medical Cluster, NUH
Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah
Professor Wang Linfa
Mr Kishore Mahbubani
Associate Professor Alex Cook
Professor Leo Yee Sin
Associate Professor Graeme McLaren
Associate Professor Audrey Chia
Professor Heidi Larson
COVID-19 and its far-reaching impacts have become topics of interest in academic discussions and conversations since the emergence of the novel coronavirus in January. The u201cCOVID-19: Updates from Singaporeu201d webinar series was set up to educate and contribute to the discourse surrounding COVID-19, when people were hungry for more information about this mysterious disease. As Asiau2019s leading medical school, the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine takes pride and enthusiasm in advancing the knowledge of medicine and science.
nThe hour-long webinar session has been running since 9 April, every Thursday at 7pm, moderated and hosted by Dr David Allen, Senior Consultant in the Division of Infectious Diseases at University Medical Cluster, NUH.
Professor Dale Fisher, Chair of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) at the World Health Organisation (WHO), who is also a Professor at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, provides weekly updates guided by epidemiology charts and dashboards that show the infection numbers and death toll of countries and regions. Overviews of the virus progression in each region are presented systematically, with Prof Fisher giving his expert opinion on particular peaks and troughs observed in the curve and the methods that each region and country were adopting to contain the spread.
nA guest speaker follows with a talk or presentation for the topic of the week, after which Dr Allen moderates a discussion with questions from the floor. Each webinar session since has seen an average of 5,000 registrations, with an audience tuning in from 73 different countries. Viewers surveyed for feedback have included hospital administrators and clinical staff, as well as people from outside the medical industry.
UNDERSTANDING THE PANDEMIC OF THE 21st CENTURY
The tricky nature of the coronavirus and the intensity of its spread has given it a reputation: u2018the pandemic of the 21st Centuryu2019. With regard to its origins, impact on health and accompanying medical treatments, viewers heard from infectious diseases experts who were in the thick of research and clinical action alike, since COVID-19 begun its rampant spread. As the first speaker of the series, Prof Paul Tambyah shared the clinical findings from patients who contracted COVID-19, outlined the symptoms observed throughout the infection period and subsequent clinical management interventions that were introduced to contain its highly infectious spread. Prof Leo Yee Sin, Executive Director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), echoed similar sentiments when she spoke about the virusu2019s unique transmission patterns and multiple hurdles faced while combatting this tricky virus. Prof Leo, who coordinates the national outbreak response in this crisis, also works at the frontline. She gave a cautionary warning that no one particular demographic is immune to the novel pathogen and its disease. Rather than pin all hopes on a vaccine, it would be more productive if we could learn to adapt, live and manage the virus spread.
Professor Wang Linfa, Director of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, posited that though wildlife like bats and pangolins had possible roles to play in the origins of this novel coronavirus, it was very likely that a rise in human activities such as wildlife trading and farming aggravated the virusu2019 transmission. He also outlined how the genetic mutations of the SARS- CoV-2 virus is distinctly different from identified viruses like SARS-CoV and the Ebola virus. This gave rise to differences in the symptoms presented and produced cohorts who do not exhibit symptoms.
nIn one of the sessions, Associate Professor Graeme Maclaren, an intensive care physician from the National University Heart Centre in Singapore, spoke about the hierarchy of life support techniques that could be used to resuscitate critical COVID-19 patients in order to gain more control over the patientu2019s physiology.
…no one particular demographic is immune to the novel pathogen and its disease. Rather than pin all hopes on a vaccine, it would be more productive if we could learn to adapt, live and manage the virus spread.
COVID-19 BEYOND MEDICINE
It takes a public health crisis to witness the beauty of many disciplines coming together to tackle the rapidly-evolving disease. Professor Alex Cook, Vice-Dean of Research and Domain Leader of Biostatistics and Modelling at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, shed some light on how mathematical epidemiology methods, such as disease modelling in statistics, have come in handy in predicting the course of the pandemic and its transmission patterns. Mathematics has also been key in mapping out the possible scenarios that could take place depending on the kinds of policy adopted, while moving towards the recovery phase.
nAside from health, the emergence of COVID-19 has cast a spotlight on the intricacies in geopolitical relationships and cooperation among countries. Singaporean academic and former diplomat, Mr Kishore Mububani, provided a fascinating account of how effective and deliberate management of geopolitical competition between two of the worldu2019s leading superpowers can define the worldu2019s progress during and in a post-COVID-19 era. In times like this, nations were urged not to turn inwards, but look towards good leaders who are advocates of global cohesion and cooperation to drive solutions to cope with the aftermath of COVID-19.u00a0
Associate Professor Audrey Chia, Director of the Leadership Development Programme from the NUS Business School, emphasised that good leadership matters in crises, especially in health systems, where good leadership has immediate impact on health responsiveness, risk protection and improved efficiency, if used strategically.u00a0
nIn a post-COVID-19 world that envisions a COVID-19 vaccine, one of the many issues leaders have to contend with is the volatility of public trust and perceptions around new and existing vaccines. Professor Heidi Larson, Founding Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, deduced that it would take the collective efforts of governments to actively communicate the benefits of vaccines to increase publicwillingnesstoreceivethemforthesakeof preserving citizen health.
nThe world has clearly not seen the end of COVID-19. With so much more to learn and understand about the virus and its disease, the initial run of 12 webinar sessions has been extended to 24 sessions. Subsequent sessions will cover softer issues such as preserving mental health in a pandemic, and the costs and ethics surrounding the search for a globally-viable vaccine.
It is important to keep in mind that the extent of the global outbreak in the following months will depend on many key factors that can
be shaped.