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. 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 11, hear from Professor Peter Doherty, 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine Laureate and Patron of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. Philipp Ivanov, Chief Executive Officer at Asia Society Australia will moderate the discussion.

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Professor Peter Doherty shared (with colleague RM Zinkernagel) the 1996 Nobel Medicine Prize for discovering the Nature of the Cellular Immune Defense.  Based at the University of Melbourne, he continues to be involved in research directed at understanding and preventing the severe consequences of influenza virus infection.  In addition, he goes in to bat for evidence-based reality, relating to areas as diverse as childhood vaccination, global hunger, environmental degradation and anthropogenic climate change.  In an effort to communicate more broadly, he has written for popular magazine and news formats, helped start the (now global) academic blog The Conversation, engages via broadcast and social media, and has published 6 “lay” books on science and the scientific life.

Philipp Ivanov has been leading Asia Society Australia as Chief Executive Officer since 2015. He is a China specialist with extensive experience in policy, education and research and is committed to building an Asia-connected Australia. Previously, he was a policy officer and manager of the Australia-China Council at the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In this role, Philipp led the strategic renewal of the Council and had broader responsibilities for the Australia-China bilateral relationship. Philipp was one of the principal authors of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper - China Country Strategy. Philipp was also Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney, advised the University of Sydney on their China strategy and managed La Trobe University's partnerships in the Gulf States, Vietnam and Thailand.  Philipp spent over 6 years in China working in education and development. He is the recipient of the ‘Rose Award’ by the Shenyang Municipal Government for his contribution to Shenyang City. In 2009 he was also awarded the Australian Government’s Endeavour Executive Fellowship to research China's policies on leadership development at the China National Academy of Education Administration in Beijing. He is a board member of the Australia-Vietnam Young Leadership Dialogue, Asia Recon, Haymarket HQ and Sydney City Council's Chinese New Year Advisory Panel. In 2015, he was invited as the only Australian to the 2015 Congress of Vienna - a preeminent global track-two dialogue on major-powers conflict, migration, equality and innovation. He is the creator of Disruptive Asia - a thought-leadership project examining the impact of Asia's rise on Australia.