George F. Gao attends online Grand Challenges Annual Meeting

The 2021 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting was held online on Nov. 9, Beijing time, aiming at promoting global health and technological innovation and coping with challenges and inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as discussing how to learn experiences and lessons from the pandemic response.

 

At the invitation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the organizers of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, George F. Gao, director-general of the China CDC, attended an online panel discussion themed on "No One is Safe until We All Are-Centers for Disease Control as Cornerstones of Pandemic Preparedness and Response" via video link.

 

The discussion was moderated by Dr. Scott Dowell, deputy director of Surveillance and Epidemiology of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

 

Gao, together with other top experts of global public health including Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US CDC, Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC and Dr. Andrea Ammon, director of the European CDC, had in-depth discussion on the positive influence and role of public health agencies in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the strategies and measures of diseases prevention and control, the CDCs' leadership and staff capacity building, and great challenges facing the international community.