Objective: understanding how infodemic management can support trust building and credibility in health system emergency response, particularly among populations that are most at risk.
Date: 3 December 2020, 19:00-20:30 CET, 12:00-13:30 Mexico City time, 7:00-08:30 Auckland time
Moderator: Neville Calleja, Ministry for Health, Malta
Panel speakers
- John Kinsman, Expert, Social and Behavioural Change Communication, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
- Lucie Marisa Bucci, Senior Manager, Immunize Canada, Canadian Public Health Association, Canada
- Anna-Leena Lohiniva, Senior Specialist, Health Security Department, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
- Kate Hannah, Deputy Director, Equity and Diversity Te Pūnaha Matatini, University of Auckland Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand
- Abache Ranaou, Secretary general of the Ministry of Health, Niger
- Dominic Maddumba, Chief of the Branding and Creative Marketing Division of the Health Promotion Bureau (HPB), Department of Health (DOH) Philippines Philippines
Biosketches:
John Kinsman
Lucie Marisa Bucci
Lucie Marisa Bucci started his public health career in 1992 with an AIDS behaviour survey of secondary school students in a community surrounding a gold mine in rural Zimbabwe. This led to an MSc degree in Health Promotion at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, after which he spent five years in provincial Uganda, working as a behavioural scientist with the Medical Research Council Programme on AIDS on behavioural HIV prevention research. His PhD in Medical Anthropology, completed at the University of Amsterdam in 2008, was based largely on the Ugandan work, and it examined the way in which scientific evidence had been used (and sometimes misused) in the formulation of AIDS policy over the course of the epidemic in Uganda and globally. Subsequently he worked as a Post Doc with the University of Amsterdam and WHO on issues to do with HIV testing and counseling in four African countries. In 2010, he joined Umeå University in Sweden as a researcher and subsequently as Associate Professor in Global Health. The focus here moved away from HIV and towards a wide range of interconnected subject areas – in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the EU – including the social determinants of health, health systems, public health emergency preparedness, antibiotic resistance, and vaccine uptake. He also led a project on Ebola messaging in Sierra Leone during the 2014-15 West African outbreak. He moved to ECDC (the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) early in 2019, taking up a position as their in-house expert on social and behaviour change. Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, his work has been focused exclusively on the response, with projects on countering online misinformation, preparedness for a COVID-19 vaccine, and addressing pandemic fatigue in the population.
Anna-Leena Lohiniva
Anna-Leena Lohiniva is a senior specialist at THL Health Security Unit, Health Security Department. She is a cultural anthropologist and health promotion expert (MA, MSc) with + 20 years’ experience in global health programming in the Middle East and North Africa region with a special focus on behavioral insights and interventions. She develops and pilots context specific RCCE strategies and interventions. She is particularly experienced in using qualitative research methods, and participatory approaches to advance culturally appropriate public health interventions. She is currently involved in crisis preparedness communication development in Finland.
Kate Hannah
Kate Hannah is a cultural historian of science and technology whose research works within and across cultural history, science and technology studies, and public understanding of science and technology. She is particularly interested in gender, ‘race’, eugenics, colonization and white supremacism in historic and contemporary science and technology cultures and subcultures. She leads two research workstreams within Te Pūnaha Matatini’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded COVID-19 research programme: Manaakitia, focused on equitable outcomes for at-risk communities, and Disinformation, focused on understanding the nature and prevalence of the infodemic in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is Deputy Director, Equity and Diversity, within Te Pūnaha Matatini, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems and Networks, a Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Science and Society at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.
Abache Ranaou
Dr Abache Ranaou is the Secretary general of the Ministry of Health in NIGER since 2017. He is the coordinator of the technical multisectoral committee for COVID19 response in Niger.
Dr Ranaou is a medical doctor with more than 20 years of experience in public health,
Prior to his actual position as SG in the MOH, Dr Ranaou has occupied many functions inside and outside his country among which medical coordinator at “medecin du Monde Belgique”, Director of Surveillance and Response to Epidemics, Director of Studies and Programming at the Ministry of health, Chief of Staff of the Director of West African Health Organization (WAHO).
Dr Ranaou has extensive experience in definition and implementation of the health policy of the Ministry of Health, management of outbreaks including strategic communication, training and management of health teams, management, monitoring and coordination of projects, as well as partner coordination, among others.
Dominic A. Maddumba, MD, MPM
Public health physician who advocates for accessible and genuine health promotion through health systems strengthening. With primary thrust in developing innovative health communication programs leading to better comprehension and subsequent improvement in health behavior. Envisions a country where each health worker invests in the health of the people and where each member of the community exhibits real ownership of health.
Currently the Head of the Branding and Creative Marketing Division of the Health Promotion Bureau of the Department of Health and concurrent Executive Assistant for the Secretary of Health. Project lead of the BIDA Solusyon Campaign (COVID-19 Prevention Campaign of the Philippines) and the Health Pilipinas Campaign (Health Promotion Campaign of the Philippines).