Global Vaccine Symposium Press Conference

MEDIA ADVISORY Global Vaccine Symposium Press Conference

Jointly organized by Columbia University and the World Health Organization

Date and Time: 22 February 2021 at 16:00 CET Geneva time/10:00 East Coast US time

Subject: The press conference will discuss COVID-19 vaccine research, development, rollout in conjunction with the COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Strategy and Implementation Virtual Global Health Symposium, organized by Columbia University, running from 22-26 February.

Panelists: 

• Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
• Professor Lee Bollinger, President, Columbia University 
• Dr Tony Fauci, Director, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Dr Nancy Messonnier, Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

More information on the symposium can be found at https://www.pgh.cuimc.columbia.edu/symposium-vaccines-and-global-health-covid-19-vaccine-development-strategy-and-implementation

Join the press conference:

https://who-e.zoom.us/j/91652045468

Password: VPCwhoCUMC

Webinar ID: 916 5204 5468

Numeric passcode for phone: 4769547221

International numbers available: https://who-e.zoom.us/u/awGA4txwl

Background: On February 22-26, Columbia will host a virtual global health symposium on COVID-19 vaccine development, strategy, and implementation, with addressing global vaccine inequity as a main theme. The symposium was years in the making — global health experts at Columbia began laying the groundwork as early as 2016. The virtual meeting is one of the first big events bringing together public health leaders from the U.S. and around the world since the U.S. rejoined the World Health Organization. https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/columbias-covid-19-vaccine-symposium-was-years-making

NOTES FOR THE VPC Please ensure you enter your name and media outlet (use name/outlet). Kindly note, only questions from media (one per journalist) are allowed. When you sign in you will be automatically put in the meeting room.

WHO reserves the right to remove any participant whose behaviour causes any disruption. The event is also broadcast on WHO social media channels and you can follow it there.

To ask a question, please click “raise hand” and this will enter you into the queue for questions. (It can be found under the tab: participants.) 

Please make sure you have a microphone connected or active on your computer. Do not ask questions via the chat as we cannot guarantee that we will incorporate them into the q&a session. 

For translation during the VPC, choices are under “interpretation” or “language interpretation” depending on which version of Zoom you use.

Note that due to the volume of questions, we are no longer able to take them from phone callers and interpretation is not available via telephone.