COVID, Climate Change, and Preparedness: Lessons Learned Workshop Recap

Jan. 25, 2023
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Panel at the COVID, Climate Change, and Preparedness: Lessons Learned event on Communities, Inequities, & Engagement – Moving Beyond Recognizing Inequities. From left: Mona Arora, Stephanie Innes, Elizabeth Hall-Lipsy, Floribella Redondo, and Agnes Attakai.

Photo credit: Amanda Leinberger

On November 18, 2022, the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions and the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health jointly sponsored a workshop titled COVID, Climate Change, and Preparedness: Lessons Learned to engage academic and public health and healthcare professionals in exploring opportunities to advance understanding of the lessons learned in the COVID-19 pandemic that are applicable to climate preparedness.  The intent was to determine how academia, government agencies and practitioners can collaborate to better integrate COVID lessons learned in relation to science communication, equity, and community engagement to build climate preparedness, and develop specific proposals and design a path forward for a collaborative community of health/climate adaptation/risk managers.  The interest in this topic was very high – with almost 150 people registered for this event.

Background & Significance

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated unparalleled collaboration and innovation among and between societies to respond to a global crisis. As science, policy, and society grappled with a prolonged, sustained response, inherent inequities and deep-rooted disparities came to light. The COVID-19 disparities stem from underlying social inequities that also increase vulnerability of these groups to adverse health impacts from climate-driven disasters. These social inequities not only impact health outcomes but also affect individual and community risk tolerance and resilience.

The occurrence of climate disasters such as heat waves, storms, and drought against a backdrop of COVID further highlight the challenges in adaptive capacity of public health systems and underscore the need to build health system preparedness and resilience to climate-related threats.  Health systems are poorly equipped and poorly integrated into climate change planning. The COVID pandemic is a clear example of how closely tied the health of animals, humans, and environment is and that pathogen spillovers have the potential to become pandemics and compromise systems. To manage these issues, lessons must be learned to not only inform recovery but to also build resilience for future stressors such as climate change. 
The workshop included presentations and panel discussions led by national and local subject matter experts followed by small group facilitated discussions designed to tease out research questions related to advancing climate and health preparedness.  The workshop received support from the Aegis Consortium, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions, and the Bridging Biodiversity and Conservation Science group.  The next phase will be supported by RII Workshop funding for building research proposals and focus group sessions to validate workshop findings in Spring 2023. You can view the event recording and download the presentations from the workshop at the links below.

VIEW THE RECORDING DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATIONS