Life Beyond The Pandemic

The opening show this season, “Life Beyond the Pandemic,” will explore what we’ve learned about the pandemic and its profound impact of how we live, think and play. The expert panel, lead by Dr. Anthony Fauci, will discuss how the ongoing crisis is shifting the ground beneath our feet and inevitably will lead to permanent changes in political and economic power. But since every calamity also is an opportunity, it also will focus on how the country can rebuild to resolve some of our most intractable and longstanding problems.

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Event details:

Every shock, like every life, leaves a legacy to reverberate across time. Many historians trace the fall of the Roman empire back to the Antonine Plague, which swept Rome during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The Black Death fundamentally reoriented Europe’s social order in the mid-1300s.More recently, even less deadly crises – such as The Great Depression, the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of Lehman Brothers – sent shockwaves racing around the globe and provoked profound but previously unimaginable changes in the way we live and think.

COVID-19 is the latest in this long line of trials to shatter our preconceptions about our futures. Just as it has destroyed lives, disrupted markets, and exposed the incompetence of governments around the world, the pandemic inevitably will reorder societies and lead to permanent shifts in political and economic power. But the crisis concurrently presents unexpected opportunities: more sophisticated and flexible use of technology, a commitment to carbon management, the realignment of the global order, renewed appreciation of personal responsibility, a rejuvenation of rural lifestyles as well as a revived appreciation for the outdoors and life’s other simple pleasures.

To help make sense of the ground shifting beneath our feet as this crisis unfolds, Conversations On the Green will open its ninth season with “Life Beyond The Pandemic.” The discussion, on May 2nd beginning at 3 p.m. EDT, is available on any internet-connected device and continues the non-profit’s tradition of producing forums in which the public can question nationally recognized speakers on the country’s most pressing issues.
The discussion will be led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical officer to President Joe Biden and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. Fauci has been the face of public health for more than 50 years and has advised every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. In recognition for his work on AIDS, President George W. Bush in 2008 awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But he became a controversial figure during the Trump administration for his views on how to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The second panel member is Dr. Kavita Patel, a regulatory wonk with years of Washington experience. She served as the director of policy for health and financial regulatory reform under President Barack Obama and is an advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank, that promotes bipartisan solutions to issues such as health, energy, education and Housing. She is a former managing director of the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Dr. Anne Rimoin, the Director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health and an internationally recognized expert on emerging infections, global health, surveillance systems, and vaccination, is the third panel member. A Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Infectious Disease Division of the Geffen School of Medicine, she has done extensive work on the emergence of infectious disease in populations living at the intersection of animal-human contact. A leading voice on the pandemic, she currently is directing studies on COVID-19 transmission among the Los Angeles workforce.

The final panel member is Dr. Michael Thomas Osterholm, a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He was a State Department science envoy from 2018 through May 2019 and is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. He is the author of more than 316 papers and abstracts and frequently consults with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Moderated by former NBC correspondent and national talk show host Jane Whitney, this interactive symposium, which begins at 3 p.m. on May 2nd and runs 90 minutes, will be live streamed, allowing anyone with an internet-connected device to participate and ask questions. Tickets can be reserved for $25 at www.conversationsonthegreen.com. All proceeds from Conversations On the Green events benefit local organizations including the Susan B. Anthony Project, New Milford Hospital, Greenwoods Counseling & Referrals, and the American Nurses Foundation: Coronavirus Response Fund, which provides immediate assistance to those risking their lives during this crisis.

Conversations On the Green brings together nationally recognized voices together to support its mission of educating and invigorating the American public through discussion of the country’s most provocative issues and ideas. Based in Litchfield, CT, COGs are interactive, Town Hall style forums allowing both the speakers and the audience to share experiences, perspectives and insights in an effort to build an ongoing conversation that strengthens community bonds.