Covid experts | lessons for the future

During the corona pandemic, society has experienced various moments of crisis that have been handled with expertise by experts. How did this go in healthcare, through production, with corona tests and in the development of vaccines? How can lessons from this time be used for an approach in the future? Experts have their say in a WoTS seminar, to share their sober story with you.

Healthcare in general has faced challenges for decades in properly serving the health of society. In the first wave of the corona pandemic, the demand for protective equipment exploded and a crisis organization was needed. Rob van der Kolk talks about the time when he was able to lead the National Aids Consortium as coordinator.

He will passionately discuss the power and success of the intensive collaboration between healthcare, science and industry. He will also discuss the current challenges in hospitals.

CEO Jan Groen of Intravacc speaks about the required expertise in developing vaccines and scaling up production if desired. Intravacc improves vaccine manufacturing processes and designs, develops, produces vaccines at cGMP level to enable preclinical and clinical studies.

The company is developing a new Corona vaccine in nasal spray form together with the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). The company is also known for vaccines in the fight against polio, among other things. Jan Groen discusses safeguarding a public interest and introducing a candidate vaccine for combating Covid-19.

He will also mention the expertise of colleagues and partners, to give a good picture of the expertise in the development and production of a vaccine. He discusses all components and companies that are needed to switch quickly, if that is desired for public health. Jan Groen concludes with suggestions for a future approach.

Since its founding in February 2021, the Open Netherlands Foundation has quickly created a national network of test locations on behalf of VWS. Since then, more than 9.4 million free corona tests have been administered through this network, for people who can again participate in a social activity or event.

The Foundation played a facilitating role: The test question was made transparent and test providers who met the requirements could join Testing for Access and offer corona tests throughout the country. Pier Eringa, chairman of Testing for Access, tells how testing could be organized en masse, serving a social purpose.

This presentation is therefore not about the type of corona tests, but about the importance of logistics, the expertise of the collaborating partners and the decisiveness of the organization. Once again the question is: how can we learn from this work for the future?

register now for a visit to the fair and for this seminar.