WHAT: University of Nebraska at Kearney Science Café
HOSTED BY: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
TITLE: “Speed of Science vs. Speed of Antiscience: Pandemic Information Speed Trials”
TOPIC: Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, will provide an overview of COVID-19 nationally and globally and compare the responses of countries that celebrate near-zero cases and deaths and those that don’t. He will highlight the speed of science as the bright side of this pandemic and discuss the role of misleading facts and conspiracy theories in hindering the necessary communication and public health efforts to control COVID-19 in the U.S.
PRESENTER: A former assistant surgeon general with the U.S. Public Health Service, Khan’s professional career has focused on health security, global health and emerging infectious diseases. He completed a 23-year career as a senior director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he led and responded to numerous high-profile domestic and international public health responses. Khan was one of the main architects of the CDC’s national health security program and he continues this work at UNMC, which has been nationally designated to prepare the American health care system to respond to outbreaks of high-hazard pathogens. He also continues to actively support responses to global outbreaks such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh as a member of the World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.
Khan received his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, and he has a Master of Public Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
TIME: 4 p.m.
DATE: Monday, May 10
ZOOM LINK: https://unmc.zoom.us/j/97078590299. Email hillem@unk.edu for password.
CONTACT: Allen Thomas, UNK associate professor of chemistry, 308.865.8452, thomasaa@unk.edu
