Episode 1: Introducing The Working Dinner
In the first episode of The Working Dinner series, three experts working in respiratory diseases, immunology, vaccine discovery, and vaccine development join Bill for a meal and a conversation two years after their last in-person meeting about lessons learned from COVID-19 that might help us prevent the next pandemic. See below for a short excerpt of their conversation, which has been slightly revised for clarity.
Bill Gates: I remember Keith in particular saying [in February 2020], "Hey, it's going to spread." And nobody said, "Oh Keith, you're just panicking." Everybody agreed.
Keith Klugman: Well, it was quite extraordinary, because WHO hadn't declared the pandemic yet. They did it a month later. So we'd been living with a month of spread in China.
Anita Zaidi: This is a really tricky thing in calling it a pandemic or epidemic, right? You don't know beforehand how bad it's going to be. And so if you end up crying wolf, then everybody says, "Why did you create this panic?" And if you don't, then this is the result we’re seeing.
More from The Working Dinner
The Gates Foundation invites you to join our co-chairs and global health experts in a series of working dinners. Watch as they share in both a meal and reflections on COVID-19 learnings that might help us prevent the next pandemic.
In the second episode of The Working Dinner video series, Melinda French Gates sits down for a candid conversation with health and gender equality experts. Watch as they discuss the inequities that the pandemic uncovered.
From flattening the curve to riding the waves, variants have shaped the entire pandemic and will shape our future. How can the world better prepare?