COVID-19 experts from Imperial and Singapore share lessons from pandemic

Experts from Imperial College London and Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) and National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) met virtually in December to discuss their findings from studying the pandemic. Opening the virtual event, Professor Jonathan Weber, Dean of Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine, said that the world was living through an “extraordinary” time in which infectious disease research had become central to everyday life. Professor Weber said: “I’m conscious that this month is the 40th anniversary of the first publications defining AIDS cases. “I realise looking back how much of the science which has underpinned our extraordinary response to COVID-19 globally was developed in response to the AIDS epidemic and how rapid our response has been on all fronts this time.” He added: “I feel catalysed by the investment that was made globally in infectious diseases 40 years ago, at a time when many people thought at the end of the...