This event will take place virtually at 3:30pm PDT/6:30pm EDT. Not in PDT or EDT? Check your time zone.
Join the Columbia Alumni Association of Washington, D.C., the Penn Club of D.C., and the MIT Club of Washington D.C. for a crucial conversation with world-renowned epidemiologist Prof. Jeffrey Shaman '00/'02/'03GSAS, director of the Climate and Health Program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Michael Caruso '83CC, former editor-in-chief of the Smithsonian Magazine, will talk with Dr. Shaman to explore where we are in the war against dangerous human viruses and what the immediate and long-term future holds.
Health officials are calling the current summer spike of the highly contagious new BA.4 and BA.5 variants the worst versions of the virus we’ve seen so far. Reported cases in the U.S. are now topping 100,000 a week and the real number is undoubtedly much higher. If you haven’t caught one of them yet, experts say you could any day now.
And while death rates are low so far, new evidence shows that even mild symptoms can develop into long Covid, which can cause major health problems for the rest of your life.
But experts say the next waves of COVID could be much worse. New combinations of mutations are multiplying at an alarming rate. The next one, BA2.75, nicknamed “Centaurus,” is rapidly spreading in India and has already been detected in the U.S. and 10 other countries.