About the event:

The rapid development and deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine is an incredible accomplishment.  As of November 2021, more than 7 billion shots have been administered.

However, reports indicate that it is richer countries that are primarily benefiting – indeed, richer countries have received approx. fifty times more Covid-19 vaccine doses than some poorer countries. Countries with globally lower incomes consistently have the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates.

As some countries begin to open up and recover from the pandemic, these global disparities in COVID-19 vaccines are meaning many around the world are being left behind. This has already let to disparities in health outcomes, discrimination in travel rules for the vaccinated from poorer countries, among others.

What are the long-term consequences of COVID-19 vaccine inequity and what can be done to move the entire world out of the pandemic? CIC Edmonton is welcoming an expert panel to discuss these issues and take your questions.

The panel includes:

Dr. Chagla is an associate professor at McMaster University, co-medical director of infection control at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and a consultant in infection control at Woodstock General Hospital. Dr. Chagla is also a teacher at McMaster University where he won a clinician teaching award in internal medicine and a young investigator grant for his work in supporting undergraduate medical education at the University of Namibia.

Dr. Chagla has a Bachelor of Science and an M.D. from Queen’s University, completed a residency in internal medicine at Western University, and an infectious diseases fellowship at McMaster University. He also has a Master of Science in infectious diseases and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Zain Chagla has contributed to local, provincial, and federal policy planning, and to several clinical trials on COVID-19 therapies. He has published works on COVID-19 research, epidemiology, testing, and infection control.

Akshaya Kumar is the Director of Crisis Advocacy at Human Rights Watch. She oversees the organization’s advocacy response to emergencies and develops innovative strategies to respond to evolving crises.

Akshaya Kumar joined HRW as Deputy United Nations Director in 2015 and represented the organization at UN headquarters in New York for four years. She previously worked at the Enough Project where she helped launch The Sentry, an initiative that seeks to freeze war criminals out of the international financial system. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Akshaya holds a JD from Columbia University and an LLM in human rights, conflict and justice from the School of Oriental and African Studies. She speaks Tamil, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic and English.

Dr. Peter Singer is the Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization.

Before joining WHO, Dr. Singer  co-founded and was the Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. He also co-founded and was the Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, and he was also Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto.

Dr. Singer received the Michael Smith Prize as Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year and was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to health research and bioethics, and for his dedication to improving the health of people in developing countries.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences,  the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).

When: Tuesday, December 7, 2021.

What time: 10AM to 11AM MT.

Where: online.

To register: https://bit.ly/3H82zcX