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Past Event
Seminar

How U.S. Response to the Ebola Epidemic Could Have Informed Its COVID Response

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Pandemic outbreaks are nothing new for the United States. Over the past 15 years, there have been five Public Health Emergencies of International Concern since the creation of the International Health Regulations in 2005. From SARS in 2003 to Ebola in 2014, the U.S. has encountered many international outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases that emphasized the importance of preparedness. Join the Belfer Center for a seminar with Dr. Syra Madad and Dr. Craig Spencer for a discussion of lessons they learned on the front lines of epidemic preparedness during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak and how this should have informed the U.S. response to COVID-19. 

Registration is required. Please click here to register in advance for this event. 

Note: While this virtual event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization.

Date: Time: - Location: Online
CDC training session on Ebola infection control in Lagos, Nigeria in August 2014.

About the Speakers

Headshot of Craig Spencer

Craig Spencer, MD MPH, is the Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and an associate professor in the program on Forced Migration and Health at the Mailman School of Public Health.  He divides his time between providing clinical care in New York and working internationally in public health. He has worked in Africa and Southeast Asia as a field epidemiologist on numerous projects examining access to medical care and human rights, including measuring mortality and maternal health in Burundi, access to legal documentation in Indonesia, community response to hepatitis E in rural Chad, and coordinating Doctors Without Borders (MSF) national epidemiological response in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak. In addition to his international public health work, Craig has provided medical care in the Caribbean, Central America, West and East Africa, and most recently abroad onboard a MSF medical search and rescue boat in the Mediterranean. Since 2019, he has served on the Board of Directors for Doctors Without Borders USA.