On October 20th, 2022, the Leadership Institute for Global Health Transformation (LIGHT) at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health organised a webinar on mass vaccination campaigns in Southeast Asia. Dr Jemilah Mahmood and Dr Kenneth Hartigan-Go shared about their experiences coordination COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Malaysia and the Philippines. They considered issues such as gaining popular trust, selecting suitable vaccines and logistics for future pandemics.
The webinar was part of the ALPHA Fellowship supported by the Temasek Foundation, bringing together 20 Fellows from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam on the topics of pandemic preparedness and digital health.
About the speakers:
Dr Jemilah Mahmood is a medical professional with over two decades of experience managing crises in health, disasters and conflict settings. She is currently Professor and Director of the newly established Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia. She is also the Pro-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. She was the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health from April 2020-September 2021. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for her work including the Merdeka Award, Isa Humanitarian Award, as well as the Gandhi, Ikeda, Luther King Award for her contribution to peace, community development and humanitarian work.
Prof Kenneth Hartigan-Go has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, professor, and manager of health programs. He holds Doctor of Medicine degrees from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Prof Hartigan-Go is currently a senior fellow of Ateneo Policy Center, School of Government, an adjunct faculty of the Asian Institute of Management. He served as Director General of the Food and Drugs Administration Philippines and later as an Undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Health. He was the founding executive director of the Zuellig Foundation.
Catch the recording of the session below: