Five-night Covid-19 conference opens to the public tonight

A conference on Covid-19 is a good opportunity for members of the public to put questions to a panel of experts.

That’s according to West Cork student, Cathal O’Regan, who is a member of the UCC Biomedical Science Society – one of the five UCC societies that have organised the event.

The aim of the conference – which runs at 6pm each night for five nights from Monday, February 22^nd to February 26^th –  is to highlight the incredible work being performed by our scientists, doctors and other frontline workers during the pandemic.

‘As we approach the one-year anniversary of the detection of the first case of Covid-19 in Ireland,’ Cathal said, ‘the speakers will be sharing their stories of working during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

‘The primary aim of this conference is to allow speakers to share what it was like to be at the centre of an extraordinary situation.

‘Over the course of the week the Covid Conference will hear from speakers including Paul Reid, of the HSE, Dr Cillian De Gascun, who is a medical virologist and the director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, as well as Dr Christina Dodd of the Oxford Vaccine Group.

The talks are free to attend, but registration is essential. For further details go to: conference: https://forms.gle/BYo8BYNLtFiJw6HPA.

Monday’s talk is by Paul Reid, the CEO of the HSE, Dr de Gascun and Louise Barry, the chief medical scientist at CUH.

Tuesday’s talk will feature Dr Oisin O'Connell, a respiratory consultant and pulmonologist, professor Liam Fanning, the Director of Molecular Virology Diagnostic and Research Laboratory, and Prof Patricia Kearney, the professor of Epidemiology, UCC School of Public Health and ISAG member.

On Wednesday, Dr Christina Dold and Aisling O’Donnell, pharmacist, will be discussing the rollout of pharmacy-based Covid-19 testing.

On Thursday, Dr Angela Flynn of UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery and Dr John MacSharry, the deputy director of Graduate Entry Medicine at UCC, will discuss the Covid Saliva test.

On Friday, Brendan O’Reilly, the operations manager at CUH and Dr John Kenny, a senior research officer at the Teagasc Food Research Centre and The Irish Coronavirus Sequencing Consortium, will be the final speakers in this weekl-long conference.