On April 15, 2020, Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul hosted Dr. Ozge Karadag Caman, Senior Staff Associate, Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), Earth Institute, Columbia University, for a live webinar on “Living in the time of COVID-19: What Will Happen in our New “Normal”?” in conversation with Ipek Cem Taha, Istanbul Center Director.
Over 200 participants joined the talk, where Dr. Karadag Caman talked about a wide range of topics including the global “preparedness” for the pandemic in terms of public health, curfew regulations, and recommendations from a public health perspective both for local and central governments and individuals.
Some highlights from her talk include the following:
Dr. Karadag Caman noted that every country has a different strategy to cope with the pandemic. Countries like Taiwan, South Korea, and Germany, have responded and prepared better to cope with COVID-19. In order to slow the spread of the virus, these countries have “test, trace, and isolate” as the backbone of their response strategy. She also added that cultural characteristics of these countries, previous outbreak experience, and strong health systems played crucial roles in the strict measurements taken at both the government and individual levels.
She underlined the importance of a strict curfew. Countries with a strict curfew can control the spread of the virus and flatten the curve more quickly than those with a partial curfew. There should be cooperation between the central government, local government, and people. She also noted that our lives will eventually get back to normal but for a while, we will have to learn to live with a new “normal” until a vaccine or medicine is found. This means that there will be a transition process.
She stressed that there is no room for hopelessness. There are some uncertainties, but thanks to collaborative scientific studies all around the world, there are more things we know about the virus. Compared with the previous century’s pandemics, there is a growing body of knowledge and lessons learned that help us to control the virus and save lives today.