Webinar: Reimagining the world after COVID-19

Historians distinguish two ends to a pandemic: the biological end, consisting in the eradication or control of the disease, and the social end, when people stop fearing the disease and society resumes its normal shape. The “Post-COVID World” may never come from a biological perspective, and some are also saying that it may never come from a social perspective either – that the world will never be the same again. Whatever the case, it is clear that the pandemic that took us by surprise was in fact highly predictable, and indeed predicted by the World Health Organisation, the former President of the United States, and many others. It is, moreover, anything but unprecedented. Sometimes, we cannot predict; but other times, we can, but don’t. Whatever the Post-COVID World is like, our first lesson must be to think more carefully and openly about the future – starting with the Post-COVID World itself. The event was chaired by Professor Alexander Broadbent. The speakers at this event were: Dr. Joyce Banda, Former President of Malawi; Professor Johan Giesecke, an infectious disease epidemiologist, and the scientist masterminding the Swedish response; and Professor Sehaam Khan, a microbiologist and Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Johannesburg.