Pandemic Response: Resilience and Recovery in the Era of COVID-19

June 23-24, 2020  |   Virtual Zoom Conference

Sponsored by the
Harvard-MIT Center for Regulatory Science
Greater Boston Pandemic Fabrication Team (PanFab)

This two-day virtual conference explored issues involving resilience and recovery to COVID19 and other related emergencies. The conference focused on responsibilities, policies and activities involved in responses to COVID19 from infection control to therapeutic discovery. The presentations and discussions help to inform government officials, healthcare administrators, physicians, biomedical research scientists and concerned citizens.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been a tragedy for individual patients, it has revealed multiple vulnerabilities at institutional and local responses and profound failure nationally. Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will involve both emergency adaptations and long-term changes to the way we plan for and respond to pandemics. Among the challenges we face are an emphasis on very low cost over supply chain resiliency; single points of failure in the national response to testing and infection control; a lack of innovation in medical equipment such as personal protective equipment; and the need for more efficient ways to test therapies and vaccines.

Speakers Include

Florence Bourgeois, BCH

Mark Namchuk, HMS

Barbara Bierer, BWH

Don Ingber, Wyss Institute

Joe Loscalzo, BWH

Jens Bitsch-Norhave, J&J

Peter Sorger, HMS

Ben Linville-Engler, MIT

Deb Plana, HMS

Shuhan He, GetUsPPE.org

Anindita Saha, FDA

PanFab Students and Fellows

Day 1: Case Studies in Pandemic Response by the Students and Fellows of the Greater Boston Pandemic Fabrication Team

June 23 | 10am-3pm

Day One of the conference included short presentations from the student engineer-scientists and local fabricators who participated in the Greater Boston Pandemic Fabrication Team and innovated in the delivery of personal protective equipment.

Presentations by PanFab members and their collaborators:

  • Rapid prototyping and alternative manufacturing of PPE
  • Regulatory innovations to improve pandemic response
  • Deployment of non-traditional PPE and low-risk medical products

Day 2: COVID-19 Response at the Local and National Scale

June 24 | 12pm-3pm

Day Two featured two panel discussions by academic, government, healthcare and industry leaders with expertise in trust and resiliency, medical devices, and therapeutic and vaccine development.

  • Rapid Therapeutic Development: Repurposing drugs and developing vaccines
  • Resiliency and Trust: Local, regional, and national response to PPE Shortages

DAY 1:
Case Studies in Pandemic Response by the Students and Fellows of the Greater Boston Pandemic Fabrication Team

DAY 2:
COVID-19 Response at the Local and National Scale