On the occasion of World Environment Day (5th June 2020), we organized a webinar titled “Reclaiming Planetary Health: Youth for Health, Youth for Nature. A unique interactive discussion with student voices from public health and medicine”. The webinar was co-hosted by Centre for Environmental Health, Public Health Foundation of India, Health and Environment Leadership Platform & Medical Students Association of India.
The webinar was unique in the sense that the expert panel did not include domain experts but promising young students from Medicine and Public Health to express their views on the environment, health, and Covid-19. The panel however was moderated by renowned Public Health expert & president PHFI, Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, and Dr. AK Shiva Kumar, a development economist, policy advisor, and evaluator.
Panel 1: COVID-19 perspectives from the student community in medicine and public health, Moderated by Prof. K Srinath Reddy.
Panel 2: Planetary Health: Reclaiming the Environment- What can the student community do? Moderated by Prof. AK Shiva Kumar.
Quotes from the Webinar:
“Covid-19 may seem like a zoonotic Disease but it has environmental beginnings. Because it is the extensive deforestation as well as the large scale animal farming that creates the conveyor belt for the transmission of viruses from the wildlife into the veterinary population and human habitats, there COVID-19 also be looked into from an environmental lens”.– Prof K Srinath Reddy.
“It is very important for us to listen to the voices of the young people because when we talk about either health or environment these are all long term dimensions of human life that we need to address” – Prof AK Shiva Kumar.
It’s time for all of us to realize that climate change will see no race, no practice of faith or gender while inching towards ravaging human civilizations. So in the end, it’s everyone’s collective responsibility to preserve our planet for themselves and the future generations of flora fauna and humans – Salman Khan.
Incase you missed the webinar, you can watch the Recording of the Webinar via this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF2mmONC9eI&list=PLEI5Ms5t_hWTvQ8jcII8Xx9ebXvUDDpTl