Newsletter #2 March 2020: COVID-19 and the World Health Summit in October
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Dear friends,
On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Many countries are taking increasingly drastic measures to slow the spread of the virus and to prevent a collapse of their healthcare systems. In light of these rapid developments, we encourage our friends and partners around the world to stay informed by visiting trusted sources such as the excellent websites of our M8 Alliance members (especially Johns Hopkins University), the United Nations, and the World Health Organization. Aside from this important general information on the pandemic, we are now also providing you with a new COVID-19 Platform on our website where we are collecting the newest scientific insights from our M8 Alliance members on the virus and other relevant links.
Ever since the first World Health Summit in 2009, we have been working towards one goal: improving health for everyone on the planet. Not only scientific researchers, but the entire academic community as well as actors from civil society, the private sector, and political decision-makers must take on more responsibility in pursuit of that goal.
Nobody can predict what will happen within the next weeks or months. But we expect the World Health Summit in October in Berlin to take place with a program addressing the enormous challenges and with suitable new formats.
In times like these, the World Health Summit and our M8 Alliance friends and partners are more important than ever before.
Thank you all for your support and for your important work – please keep safe and stay healthy!
Yours,
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Detlev Ganten
Founding President
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Charles Ibingira
International President 2020
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The President of the European Commission to speak at the World Health Summit
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We are honored to welcome the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, not only as the newest Patron of the World Health Summit but also as a speaker at the Opening Ceremony of the World Health Summit on the 25th of October. More confirmed speakers are numerous Virologists and Pandemic Preparedness Experts like Charité’s COVID-19-specialist Christian Drosten, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program Michael Ryan, and the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, Peter Piot.
Ursula von der Leyen is joining German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a Patron of the World Health Summit 2020.
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Postponement of Events: M8 Alliance Expert Meeting in Rome, Italy, and World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Kampala, Uganda
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The 4th M8 Alliance Expert Meeting on Migrant and Refugee Health at Sapienza University of Rome, initially scheduled for the 5th of June 2020, has to be postponed due to COVID-19. The meeting will be rescheduled to June in 2021. Please check our website for updates.
Also, we regret to report that the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Kampala, Uganda in April has been postponed – we will provide you with new dates as soon as possible.
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New M8 Alliance COVID-19 Platform on World Health Summit Website
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Get the latest scientific insights on the coronavirus by World Health Summit’s academic network, the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, Universities and National Academies. This platform aims to share scientific insights on the corona (COVID-19) pandemic by the individual M8 members: National experience with the virus which can help other countries, research which might be important for other scientists, or latest data on the spread of the virus. Check out the COVID-19 platform.
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Updates on COVID-19: Map on Global Cases by M8 Alliance Partner Johns Hopkins University
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Our M8 Alliance Member Johns Hopkins University has emerged as a prime source for reliable information on the global spread of the virus. The interactive map shows the global situation.
Other good and reliable news on COVID-19 are provided by the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
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