Global health professor discusses COVID-19 at the Vatican

Chunhuei Chi in a suit and tie speaking at a podium.

By Kathryn Stroppel

Global health professor discusses COVID-19 at the Vatican

Chunhuei Chi is helping create policy recommendations to promote health equity

It’s not every day you’re invited to Vatican City, let alone be asked to contribute professional knowledge of interest to the Pope that could have worldwide implications.

For College of Health Professor Chunhuei Chi, that professional knowledge included producing a statement of scientific evidence and policy recommendations for Pope Francis’ initiative to promote health equity around the world.

From November 19-20, Chunhuei participated and presented at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) Workshop on the pandemic titled “SARS-CoV-2 Health Policies, Vaccination and Long COVID: Achievements and Challenges.” Each year, the PAS organizes multiple conferences or workshops on important global issues, including climate change.

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Cardinal Turson with Chunhuei Chi
Cardinal Peter Turkson, from Ghana, is the PAS chancellor.

The PAS is distinctive because it is the only supranational academy of sciences in the world. It was founded as the Linceorum Academia in Rome on August 17, 1603, and was the world’s first exclusively scientific academy.

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The Casina Pio IV is a villa in Vatican City, now home to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
The workshop was held at Casina Pio IV, an elegant complex completed in 1558 that was the Pope’s former residence, located in a restricted area of Vatican City that is not open to the public.

Chunhuei’s presentation, “7 Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic Control Policy: Examples from the U.S.A.,” included a discussion on the prelude to the pandemic, pre- and post-vaccination phases, challenges faced in the United States and around the world, and lessons for the future.

“The workshop presentations and lively discussions were mixed with the hard sciences of genetic technology related to vaccines and the etiology of long COVID, and the social sciences on pandemic control policies and health equity,” Chunhuei says. “One of the unique contributions I brought to the table was in arguing that we should work to prevent the next pandemic, while most speakers were discussing how to be better prepared for the next pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I was the lone voice arguing that this COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented and, if we don’t examine why, it is bound to happen again.”

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Chunhuei Chi and Joachim von Braun
In addition to Chunhuei, other academicians included Joachim von Braun, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, co-chair of the workshop, and professor at Bonn University in Germany. The other co-chair was Dr. Chien-Jen Chen from Taiwan.

In addition to Chunhuei, invited speakers included many prominent scholars from around the world.

They included Barney Graham, from the Morehouse School of Medicine, who was instrumental in the development of mRNA vaccines; Salim Karim, director of the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa; Chien-Jen Chen, a renowned epidemiologist and PAS academician, who was the former vice president of Taiwan and held other top leadership positions in Taiwan; Srinath Reddy, founder of the Public Health Foundation of India; and Anne Goujon, director of Population and Just Societies Program, part of the Austrian-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

Chunheui says the once-in-a-lifetime experience was amazing. “It was a great learning experience for me, and I also made some contributions. I am honored and grateful to be part of this effort.”

Watch a recording of Chunhuei’s presentation, titled “Science and Politics of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Control Policies.”

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