PHEIC News

In this episode, we spoke with Sui-Lee Wee from the New York Times Beijing Bureau. She talked to us about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected her personally, and what it’s been like to cover the COVID-19 situation as a journalist. In the episode we refer to one of her stories, which follows two Chinese women who experienced very different fates from COVID-19. You can find the story here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-death-life.html

This episode was recorded on 26th March 2020.

In this episode, Dr Aamir Khan from IRD Global talked to us about how the COVID-19 has affected global health programmes in low- and middle-income countries. He told us about some of the challenges faced by TB treatment programmes and how the COVID-19 situation is affecting health systems in Pakistan. Learn more about IRD Global at http://ird.global !


This episode was recorded on 26th March 2020.

In this episode, Dr. Eve Anwar gave a primary care perspective on the COVID-19 epidemic. She talked to us about how primary care clinics in Singapore have been managing suspected COVID-19 patients and how the epidemic has affected practice in primary care.

This episode was recorded on 4th March, 2020. 

Prof Ben Cowling from the School of Public Health at Hong Kong University talked to us about the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong, what some of the key uncertainties are about the pandemic, and the role of face masks and school closures as control measures. 

This episode was recorded on 18 March 2020.

In this episode, Dr Hannah Clapham talks about what’s known of the origins of the epidemic, what we know about how the COVID-19 virus spreads, what we don’t know, and how this influences our predictions of how the epidemic will evolve. We also get a glimpse into how mathematical modellers study transmission in the early stages of an epidemic. 

This episode was recorded on 28th February, 2020.

On January 30, 2020 the WHO declared the COVID-19 epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Prof David Heymann talked to us about what the PHEIC mechanism is, why it exists, why a PHEIC was declared and what the implications are. This episode was recorded on March 11, 2020.