Join The Health Museum for a virtual conversation and Q&A with internationally recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development Dr. Peter J. Hotez, MD, Ph.D. and award-winning infectious disease journalist Helen Branswell.

Having been on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis in their respective professions, they have a unique perspective on how we got where we are, how we might move beyond it, and what lessons we can take from it going forward. It promises to be a frank and insightful discussion about the sociopolitical, economic, and environmental factors that drive infectious disease, including public attitudes towards science, and the pivotal role that vaccines play in controlling COVID-19 and future outbreaks.

About the speakers:

• Peter J. Hotez, MD, Ph.D., is a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology and the founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where his research includes work on SARS and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

• Helen Branswell is a senior writer at STAT covering infectious diseases and global health; she joined STAT at its founding in 2015. Helen was introduced to epidemic reporting during Toronto’s SARS outbreak in 2003; in the years since she has written about bird flu, the H1N1 flu pandemic, Ebola, Zika, acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), measles, and now leads STAT’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Helen spent the summer of 2004 embedded at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a CDC Knight Fellow.

This virtual event will take place on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at 9 am. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.thehealthmuseum.org/event/preventing-next-pandemic-conversation-helen-branswell-and-dr-peter-hotez.

Tickets begin at no cost, with attendees asked to pay what they are able to afford.