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COVID-19 in Ibero-America: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Master Class with Dr Jaime Sepúlveda

09.12.2021
Photo: Ana Ferreira
Date
09/12/2021
Hour
16.00 - 17.00 h
Speaker
Dr Jaime Sepúlveda (ISGlobal Visiting Professor)

It has been almost two years since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China. Western Europe became the epicenter of the pandemic shortly thereafter. Italy and Spain suffered some of the highest death rates from COVID-19 in early 2020. Later that year, Latin America became the epicenter of the pandemic, with Peru and Mexico recording the highest mortality rates.

By mid-2021, Latin America had one-third of the total COVID-19 deaths, with only 8% of the global population. The WHO Independent Panel identified Brazil and Mexico among two of the worst performing countries in their response to the pandemic. Poor leadership by populist presidents explain the outcome. Portugal and Spain have performed very well in 2021, with some of the highest vaccination rates in the world, but caution against complacency is required.

Lessons learned and recommendations from experts are needed, along with political accountability for poor performance.

On 9 December, you are invited to join this free, public webinar to learn more on this issue. It is the first session from a webinar series given by Dr Jaime Sepúlveda during his time at ISGlobal. It will be offered in English.

Dr Jaime Sepúlveda

Dr Jaime Sepulveda, the Haile T. Debas Distinguished Professor of Global Health, has been the Executive Director of UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences for the last 9 years. A member of the Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet, he leads a team of over 350 faculty and staff. Sepulveda worked for more than two decades in a variety of senior health posts in the Mexican government.

After graduating from Harvard University, where he obtained two masters and a doctoral degree in Public Health, he became Mexico’s Director-General of Epidemiology. At age 36, he was appointed Vice-Minister of Health. For almost a decade, he was Director-General of Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and Dean of the National School of Public Health. From 2003 to 2006, he served as Director of the National Institutes of Health of Mexico.

From 2007 to 2011, Dr. Sepulveda was a member of the Foundation Leadership Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In that role, he designed and led the Mesoamerican Health Initiative, a result-based financing mechanism involving 8 countries and over $250M. He also served as the Gates Foundation representative to GAVI, and was elected Vice-Chair of the GAVI Board.

Additionally, Sepulveda is an experienced implementer of effective health programs. He designed Mexico’s Universal Vaccination Program, which eliminated polio, measles, and diphtheria by achieving universal childhood immunization coverage. He also modernized the national health surveillance system, created the National Health Surveys System and founded Mexico’s National AIDS Council.

Sepulveda served for 6 years as an elected member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.