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8:30 AM EST
8:30 AM EST

Welcome: Contributing on COVID-19: Eric Braverman, CEO, Schmidt Futures

The mission of Schmidt Futures, to bet early on exceptional people making the world better, has never been more important than during COVID-19. Hear from CEO Eric Braverman about how the philanthropic initiative is committed to mobilizing and supporting talent to take on the world’s toughest challenges throughout the pandemic and beyond.

8:35 AM EST
8:35 AM EST

Welcome: COVID-19 as a Defining Moment for the Social Sciences: Dr. Alondra Nelson, President, Social Science Research Council

Learn how the world’s largest professional organization for social scientists is mobilizing researchers in 80 countries to study and learn from COVID-19, and why insights from this community of scholars have never been more important as we navigate and recover from the pandemic.

8:40 AM EST
8:40 AM EST

Forum Aspirations

Hear from Futures Forum co-hosts about what we are setting out to learn and how much we stand to accomplish by translating insights into action.

8:45 AM EST
8:45 AM EST

Keynote: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization

WHO Director-General shares his views on the seminal insights of the comparative research and how its findings, in addition to those of the Health Security Net, will help the WHO learn from COVID-19 and ultimately help leaders devise and implement more effective public health interventions.

9:00 AM EST
9:00 AM EST

Session I: COVID-19 – Case Studies from 23 Nations

Join for the debut of research on 23 nations’ COVID-19 responses undertaken by 78 researchers from 47 institutions across six continents. The researchers will unveil their findings on why some nations succeeded while others failed, and outline lessons learned to help navigate the ongoing pandemic and practice public health differently in the future.

9:45 AM EST
9:45 AM EST

Dr. John Nkengasong, Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in Conversation with Dr. Wilmot James

Hear about the unique role the Africa CDC has played in making the COVID-19 response more collaborative and effective across the continent, creating a new model for multilateralism in confronting a public health emergency.

10:05 AM EST
10:05 AM EST

Session II: Exemplars, Outliers, Trends, Takeaways

Leading scholars discuss the findings on the global COVID-19 response and outline what we can learn from them to better prepare for future pandemics.

10:45 AM EST
10:45 AM EST

Break

10:55 AM EST
10:55 AM EST

Keynote: Reflections on Pandemic Preparedness: Dr. Victor Dzau, President, National Academy of Medicine

President of the National Academy of Medicine and member of the WHO’s Global Pandemic Monitoring Board shares what COVID-19 has revealed about the state of pandemic preparedness and what we must do differently going forward.

11:05 AM EST
11:05 AM EST

Session III: Looking Backwards to Go Forwards – 25 Years of Expert Reports in the Health Security Net

Join as we debut the Health Security Net, an online, searchable database with over 1,200 global reports chronicling 25 years of pandemic preparedness policy, the most comprehensive repository of its kind ever built to guide scholars and policymakers as they navigate future pandemics.

11:20 AM EST
11:20 AM EST

Keynote: COVID-19 Commissions: Dr. Philip Zelikow, former Executive Director, 9/11 Commission

Hear from the former Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission on how we can achieve a measure of public accountability and learn from the successes and failures of the COVID-19 response, and what role a Commission—whether stood up by the government or private sector—could play in doing so.

11:30 AM EST
11:30 AM EST

Discussion: Learning & Accountability Mechanisms

Experts in public health and public accountability discuss the various methods from which we can learn about COVID-19 and strengthen our public health and governmental systems.

12:00 PM EST
12:00 PM EST

Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director, in Conversation with Barbara Bush

Hear from the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

12:25 PM EST
12:25 PM EST

Session IV: Implications – Race & Vulnerable Populations

Just as the virus exacerbated pre-existing medical conditions in individual bodies, the pandemic exploited and aggravated pre-existing structural weaknesses producing high vulnerability among essential workers, minorities, the poor, and underserved rural communities. Hear from leading practitioners about how we can realign systems to equitably support those most in need.

1:10 PM EST
1:10 PM EST

Closing Remarks: Wendy Schmidt, Co-founder, Schmidt Futures

Hear from Schmidt Futures Co-founder Wendy Schmidt about the opportunities ahead to build a healthier, more equitable world.

1:20 PM EST
1:20 PM EST

Preview of Day 2

Hear a preview of Day 2 of the Forum, including discussions on reimagining pandemic preparedness through a new global agenda on policy and research and development.

Day 2 Agenda
8:30 AM EST
8:30 AM EST

Welcome & Highlights of Day 1

Hear from Futures Forum co-hosts as they outline highlights from Day 1 and the agenda for Day 2, including discussions on reimagining pandemic preparedness through a new global agenda on policy and research and development.

8:32 AM EST
8:32 AM EST

Keynote: Dr. Eric Schmidt, Co-Founder of Schmidt Futures

Dr. Eric Schmidt, Co-Founder of Schmidt Futures, Chair of the Commission to Reimagine New York on COVID-19, and former Google CEO, discusses how we can and must build back better.

8:37 AM EST
8:37 AM EST

Session V: Implications – Trust & Vaccine Hesitancy

Leaders in behavioral science, misinformation, and vaccine trust reflect on the culturally specific reasons distrust exists and how they can be identified and addressed to ensure uptake of vaccines to save lives.

9:15 AM EST
9:15 AM EST

Keynote: Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Chair, National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats

Hear reflections from the health expert tapped to lead the U.S. emergency committee that distilled the emerging science on COVID-19 to help inform policymakers.

9:25 AM EST
9:25 AM EST

Session VI: Implications – Science Advising: Achievements, Mistakes, & Lacunae So Far

We learned more about COVID-19 as the pandemic accelerated—how the virus is transmitted, the best ways to treat it, and how to stop its spread. Health advisors from the United States, Korea, China, and Nigeria discuss what we got right and where science advisors can do better in the future.

10:05 AM EST
10:05 AM EST

Session VII: Implications – What The U.S. and World Must Do

Consider an affirmative agenda for what the global public health community—health, science, and policy experts—must do to ensure we never again endure a pandemic so costly in lives and livelihoods.

10:50 AM EST
10:50 AM EST

Dr. Vivek Murthy, Co-Chair of President-Elect Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board & Former U.S. Surgeon General, in Conversation with Barbara Bush

Hear from the Co-Chair of the Biden COVID-19 Advisory Board about how the Biden Administration plans to move America out of the COVID-19 crisis in the months ahead.

11:15 AM EST
11:15 AM EST

Break

11:25 AM EST
11:25 AM EST

Session VIII: Implications – Never Again Strategies & Scientific Moonshots

For the first time in human history, a new set of genomic tools can very possibly end pandemics before they begin. Yet realizing this possibility will require a different balance between incremental and moonshot approaches than exists today in our national research and development portfolio. Hear how investment in moonshot ideas now could transform our response to health crises in the future.

12:10 PM EST
12:10 PM EST

Closing Remarks and Next Steps

Hear from Futures Forum co-hosts about where we go from here and how you can join us to turn these insights into action in the months ahead.

Day 1 Agenda