Chinese and Cross-Cultural Health Humanities Lecture Series : Why is this Pandemic Unprecedented?

FNRA: Chinese and Cross-Cultural Health Humanities Lecture Series
Online Lecture 

Why is this Pandemic unprecedented?
By  Prof. Joseph Tham, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights

25 Jan 2020 (Monday)

2:30 - 4:00pm

Via Zoom

One of the most heard words to describe the COVID 19 pandemics is “unprecedented.” But in fact, it doesn’t even make the top 10 list of fatalities among all the epidemics in human history. Why is this time so different? This talk will look at the changes in our perception that makes this epidemic indeed unprecedented. There is a misconception of medicine due to the increased availability and effectiveness of technology, but scientific knowledge is not really as certain and definitive as the media portrays and usually takes years of research to arrive at a consensus. Globalization and the accessibility of communication and social media makes the situation much more immediate. The number game gives us a false sense of control. All these perceptions, expectations, and inexact science are mixed with political and economic implications, generating uncertainties and anxieties in different spheres of society. The talk will offer some conjectures of a post-Covid future.

Prof. Joseph Tham

Joseph Tham is a Professor of Bioethics at Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, Italy. Born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada at the age of fifteen. He first majored in mathematical sciences and then graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto. After several years of work as a family physician, he entered the seminary of the Legionaries of Christ and was ordained a priest in 2004. He presently teaches bioethics in Regina Apostolorum and was the former dean of the School of Bioethics. He is the editorial coordinator of Studia Bioethica and a fellow of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights

Speaker