Panel Session 5

          Access to safe and effective vaccinations on an equitable basis is essential to limiting the COVID-19 pandemic. Assuring availability and promoting ethical, non-discriminatory usage will need global cooperation. Politics of vaccine nationalism, on the other hand, thwart these noble attempts. Even before many of the now-approved COVID-19 vaccines completed clinical trials, wealthy countries such as the United States, UK, Japan, and the EU procured several million doses of the promising vaccines in the pipeline. In contrast, global promises of equitable vaccine supply in countries of the Global South remained unkept. Policymakers and academics alike must recognize the importance of cooperation and non-discrimination in this endeavour to prevent further outbreaks of diseases.

          Public health has experienced paradigm shifts repeatedly in the digital era, confounding nearly all predictions made by scientists and futurists. For the first time in human history, newer innovations have opened the stage for establishing health as global commons. Based on the experiences learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic these past two years, this session brings together academics and practitioners of diverse disciplines and expertise to deliberate on the questions of public health, well-being of all citizens and futures of health as global commons.