Journalism Festival Innsbruck: What we can learn from pandemics

AM PODIUM:
■ Marcus Bachmann
Advocacy & Humanitarian Affairs Advisor Representative for Médecins Sans Frontières Austria
alexander Herbig
Head of the Pathogenome Bioinformatics Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig
günter Weiss
Director of the Department of Internal Medicine II, Medical University of Innsbruck
MODERATION:
■ Elke Ziegler
Science journalist, ORF

Major pandemics such as the plague, influenza or Covid-19 have one thing in common: they change society and it is certain that there will always be pandemics. German bioinformatician Alexander Herbig, Marcus Bachmann, Advocacy & Humanitarian Affairs Advisor and Head of Operations at Doctors Without Borders, and Innsbruck-based infectiologist Günter Weiss will be taking part in a panel discussion. The aim is to show what we have already learned from pandemics and what we still need to learn.
Bioinformatician Alexander Herbig reconstructs the genomes of historical pathogens using computer-based calculation methods. He heads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Among other things, he is researching the first known pandemic in human history, the plague. Based on these findings, the evolution of pathogens can be traced. Research findings that are also important for infectiologists today. Günter Weiss, Director of the University Department of Internal Medicine II, and his colleagues are constantly facing new challenges: Due to climate change and globalization, new and known pathogens are spreading worldwide. Diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and leishmaniasis are now also present in Europe. Marcus Bachmann is familiar with these and other pandemics such as Ebola and cholera from his numerous missions for Médecins Sans Frontières in crisis and conflict regions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he campaigned for global fairness in the distribution of vaccines and medicines. All drei experts look at the topic from drei different specialist perspectives. Science journalist Elke Ziegler will moderate the discussion, in which it will become clear what we should learn from past pandemics for the future.
The event takes place as part of the celebratory program for the 20th anniversary of the Medical University of Innsbruck: https://20jahre.i-med.ac.at/events
The complete program of the Journalism Festival Innsbruck can be found here: https://www.journalismusfest.org
Free admission, no registration required