On January 30, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) that originated in Wuhan, China. Healthcare experts have warned that Covid-19 could rapidly spread, if not properly contained, and many governments around the world have begun to take precautionary measures to ensure public health safety. Amid the international concern and heightened fears about the disease, what is fact and what is fiction? The Asia Society Hong Kong Center brings you regular updates on the coronavirus story in Hong Kong that has reverberations elsewhere in the world. We are pleased to present on-the-ground public health experts and internationally renowned specialists with the latest facts and evidence-based findings regarding this epidemic outbreak. In episode 7, hear from Prof. Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. S. Alice Mong, Executive Director of Asia Society Hong Kong Center will moderate the discussion.

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Marc Lipsitch is Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics (CCDD), an NIH/NIGMS MIDAS Center of Excellence. He is an author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications on the impact of medical and public health interventions on the spread and evolution of infectious disease agents, and the consequences of these changes for human health. He has played a leading role in epidemiologic responses to infectious disease outbreaks, from SARS to pandemic influenza and Ebola. Ongoing studies of pandemic preparedness and response focus on preparedness for clinical trials in outbreaks. In addition, current research includes the application of population genomics to understand the spread of infections and the changes produced in bacterial population by human immunity, and modeling the effects of pneumococcal vaccination. He has contributed to our understanding of influenza seasonality, disease burden estimation, epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance, and novel methods for infectious disease epidemiology and modeling. Experimentally, his laboratory studies the immunity and antimicrobial resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae, combining molecular biology and animal studies with population genomics, epidemiology and mathematical modeling. 

Dr. Lipsitch is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology and has served on the editorial advisory boards/associate editor of eLife, PLoS Medicine, the Journal of Infectious Diseases, American Journal of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, and Epidemics. He was a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Working Group on H1N1 Influenza, as well as CDC’s Team B for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the Wellcome Trust/CIDRAP Team B for Ebola. He has provided advice on antimicrobial resistance, SARS or influenza to the Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, Congressional Budget Office, Defense Science Board, and the governments of Canada and Mexico.

Dr. Lipsitch received his BA in philosophy from Yale University, completed his doctoral work in zoology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and did postdoctoral work at Emory University and at the CDC from 1995-1999. He joined the faculty of Harvard School of Public Health in 1999.