Shielding high-risk populations against COVID-19: First webinar in new series

The READY Initiative, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERHA), and the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University are hosting a weekly webinar series, “COVID-19 and Humanitarian Settings: Knowledge and Experience Sharing.” The series will take place on Wednesdays from 8–9am (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time) from now through July. Recordings of the series will be posted and follow-up discussions will take place in READY’s discussion forum.

The first session, “Shielding high-risk populations against COVID-19,” was held on April 1, 2020, and quickly reached its 500-participant limit. Paul Spiegel, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health (a READY consortium partner) moderated the session, which featured Francesco Checchi, Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at LSHTM and David Skinner, Save the Children Team Leader for Rohingya Response. The webinar presented a range of guiding principles for protecting the most vulnerable (e.g., high-risk individuals in conflict settings) from COVID-19 infection in a safe and dignified manner until COVID-19 can be controlled or a vaccine/treatment options become available. We will be holding follow-up conversations on READY’s discussion forums.

Future sessions in the series are still in development, but will likely include learning from previous major infectious disease outbreaks, ethical considerations, mental health and psychosocial support, delivering treatment in humanitarian settings, and more.

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