Notice Board

The Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA) presents a session with Dr. Jason Kindrachuk as he discusses the fourth wave of COVID-19 and the bigger picture of viral diseases.

Navigating the Fourth Wave  of Covid-19 and Beyond

Thursday, September 16, 2021 – 12 p.m. MDT
YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/oTjKh9OBQ5M

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a historic public health crisis that has had drastic and long-lasting effects on global health and the economy. This has also been the first pandemic where updates have been provided on a nearly instantaneous basis to both biomedical researchers, health care workers and the public. Over 20 plus months, research from across the globe has allowed us to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in details normally taking years to decades. However, many questions remain. Namely, how did this happen? When will it end? How do we navigate this new frontier between these points? The speaker will provide some background context to describe our current state of knowledge of the virus, the illness and the vaccines and interventions being implemented to get the pandemic under control. 

Speaker: Dr. Jason Kindrachuk

Dr. Kindrachuk is an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba, Canada, and holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the molecular pathogenesis of emerging viruses. His research expertise and experiences have focused on emerging virus pathogenesis and outbreak preparedness with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, including outreach activities in Sierra Leone, Gabon and Kenya. His research investigations focus on the circulation, transmission and pathogenesis of emerging viruses that pose the greatest threat to global human and animal health. These have included ebolaviruses, coronaviruses and influenza viruses. Past and present findings from his investigations will help inform therapeutic treatment and development strategies, outbreak prediction and preparedness efforts. He is also active in international outbreak response efforts, including the West African Ebola virus disease epidemic and, most recently, Covid-19. He actively participates in training young investigators for careers in infectious disease research and in public outreach activities locally, nationally and internationally.

In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don’t, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember, you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming.

Link to SACPA’s YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/SouthernAlbertaCouncilonPublicAffairs

For further information on the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, visit the SACPA website.