Dr. Monica Gandhi, UCSF professor of medicine and a leading public health voice during COVID-19, speaks on “Navigating a Post-Pandemic World” at the March 6 First Friday Forum, sharing lessons from the pandemic and strategies for managing endemic respiratory diseases.
The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed how we live, work and interact with one another. From lockdowns and mask mandates to vaccine rollouts and shifting public health policies, we all experienced unprecedented disruptions to our daily lives. Now, years later, we face important questions: How do we live with COVID-19 as an endemic disease? What lessons should we carry forward? How can we better prepare for the next pandemic?
Dr. Monica Gandhi will address these critical questions in her talk “Navigating a Post-Pandemic World” at the March 6 First Friday Forum March program. She will share insights from her extensive experience as one of the country’s most prominent public health voices during the
pandemic.
Gandhi will discuss the science and politics of our pandemic journey, highlighting both successes and challenges. She will present her practical 10-point plan for managing endemic respiratory diseases, which includes expanding equitable vaccine distribution, reassessing testing policies, increasing access to outpatient therapies, and emphasizing harm reduction over restrictions.
Her approach emphasizes reason, science and compassion while acknowledging that though eradicating these viruses may be challenging, controlling them without disrupting society is entirely possible.
Gandhi is a professor of medicine and associate chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She serves as the director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research and the medical director of the HIV Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.
She is the author of “Endemic: A Post-Pandemic Playbook,” which offers a roadmap for coexisting with new respiratory diseases using existing tools and evidence-based strategies.
Gandhi is a long-standing NIH-funded researcher whose work focuses on HIV treatment and prevention, and she brings her trademark straight talk and honesty to discussions of public health policy.
This free program is on Friday, March 6 at 1:30 p.m. and is open to the community. Held in the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church sanctuary at 49 Knox Drive, Lafayette. It will be simultaneously available online. To attend online, click “Watch” on the First Friday Forum webpage at lopc.org/first-friday-forum/. Registration is not required.
