When: Friday, April 3, 2020, 9:00 - 11:30 a.m. EDT
What: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, East Asian nations have worked to control the spread of the disease through coordinated public-health responses on scales not seen since the 2002-3 SARS outbreak. China, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea have each employed policy tools such as focusing on early diagnosis, encouraging the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), limiting travel, instituting lockdowns, and aggressively monitoring infections to slow the spread of the virus within their countries. As the United States hones its response, Asian experts have experience and lessons to share from their responses to fight the disease across the Pacific. What has made this outbreak so different from the SARS, MERS, Ebola epidemics, and other flus? What has worked well for each country, and what hasn’t? How should the U.S. prepare for what’s to come during the outbreak and in its aftermath? Is a more unified global response needed, and if so, what would it look like?
On Friday, April 3, the Brookings John L. Thornton China Center will convene a remote panel of experts from China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea to address these questions and discuss what has worked to combat this pandemic. Brookings President John R. Allen will offer opening remarks, and the panel will be moderated by Cheng Li and Ryan Hass. Following the conversation, panelists will take questions from the audience.