WHO’s director-general to talk COVID-19 at Collision’s virtual conference

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, will discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and the significance of health-related innovation throughout the Collision from Home conference next month, the occasion’s organizers stated Wednesday.

The statement follows the director-general’s promise on Tuesday to keep leading the battle versus the coronavirus pandemic after United States President Donald Trump suspended financing to the WHO and threatened to stop entirely. 

Trump blasted the WHO today, calling it a “puppet of China” and providing an open letter to the body about its viewed failings in dealing with the crisis. In spite of the president’s risks, the WHO’s members passed a landmark resolution on Tuesday  about unifying nations to eliminate COVID-19.

Paddy Cosgrave, creator of the Toronto-based Collision and its European sibling occasion Web Summit, stated in a declaration that he was “humbled” to invite the director-general, who he referred to as “one of the most important people in the world right now.” Health tech will be a significant focus of this year’s conference, which will run practically for the very first time from June 23 to 25 and has actually hence been relabelled Collision at Home. The conference will likewise include a variety of other popular medics consisting of Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association.

“This global pandemic has created a warlike scenario where the health industry is in an arms race, except the arms are not weapons — they are medical advancements that will save lives, such as tracking systems for contact tracing, and super fast testing,” stated Cosgrave. “I believe the tech advancements we’ll make over the next year and into 2021 will be incredible, and change the way healthcare is run forever.”

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