Time and again new infectious diseases are emerging such as COVID- 19, MERS, SARS, and Ebola. Other long known infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, zika or dengue are still a major health problem. And some cancers are also caused by viral infections. Vaccinating people against those diseases could be an effective preventive measure. However, most of the times the road from a detailed understanding the causal agent to inventing vaccines, testing them rigorously, getting them approved and organizing the logistics for their production and application is strenuous; and success is far from guaranteed.

The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines was a remarkable achievement, but also an exception, as it could draw extensively on previous work on related diseases MERS and SARS. Also, the response time to the next epidemic should be even shorter.

What does it take for success – scientifically but also in project management and health politics, e.g. to foster acceptance?
Experts in the fields of vaccines will share their experience and discuss the topic with the participants.

Participants:
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Nobel Laureate Physiology or Medicine, 2008
Institut Pasteur, France

Jyaysi Desai
Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands

Stefan Kaufmann
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany

Han Steutel
Vfa, Verband forschender Pharma-Unternehmen, Germany

Moderator: Kai Kupferschmidt
Science Journalist, Germany