A Conversation with 

Boston University School of Public Health

Dean Sandro Galea (Harvard MPH) on

 The Contagion Next Time: Underlying Socioeconomic Divides and Implications on the Future of Education

The Harvard Club of Hong Kong Educational Fund (HCHKEF), supported by the Harvard Club of Hong Kong, is honoured to welcome back Boston University School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea (Harvard MPH) for a virtual live conversation on the back of his latest book The Contagion Next Time.

In a few short months, COVID-19 devastated the world, including America. It infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands, and effectively made the earth stand still. Yet underlying socioeconomic inequality and our collective failure to address these issues pre COVID-19 has left us vulnerable to the contagion and the ensuing global health crisis it became.

Following on the themes of his award-winning publication Well, Sandro Galea's The Contagion Next Time articulates the foundational forces shaping health in our society and how we can strengthen them to prevent the next outbreak from becoming a pandemic. Because while no one could have predicted that a pandemic would strike when it did, we did know that a pandemic would strike, sooner or later. We're still not ready for the next pandemic. But we can be--we must be.

In this special event, Dean Galea will talk about the need to tackle deep-rooted obstacles preventing us from becoming a truly vibrant and equitable society. The conversation will tackle topics including:

• How our health is a public good worth protecting

• How different countries balance health and education trade-off considerations between in-person vs remote/online learning vis-a-vis public health, well-being, and socio-economic divide including lessons learned to date

• What it means for education today to foster a truly vibrant and equitable society in the future and the next contagion from becoming a pandemic

The event will be moderated by Philo Alto (board chair of HCHKEF) and chaired by Paul Cruickshank (Head of Mentorship of HCHKEF and Director of the Harvard Club of Hong Kong).

Guest Speaker:

Dean Sandro Galea

Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health

Sandro Galea is Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. He has been named an epidemiology innovator by Time, a top voice in healthcare by LinkedIn, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world. His writing and work are featured regularly in national and global public media. A native of Malta, he has served as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders and has held academic positions at Columbia University, University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. 

He received graduate degrees from Harvard University (MPH) and Columbia University. In 2015, he became the youngest public health dean in the country, assuming leadership of Boston University School of Public Health. His scholarship lives at the intersection of social and psychiatric epidemiology, with a focus on the behavioural health consequences of trauma.