Experts To Speak On Vaccine Efficacy And New COVID-19 Variants

The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service will present a panel on COVID-19 Vaccines and SAR-CoV-2 variants on Thursday, April 22 at 5 p.m.

“A Race Against Time?” will address the following questions: How well do the current vaccines protect against new SARS-CoV-2 variants? How quickly can Texas, the U.S. and the globe reach herd immunity? Does the global vaccine industry have the needed manufacturing capacity? What’s the likelihood that variants will become increasingly resistant to vaccines?

The event, hosted virtually via Zoom, is open to the public. Register online at the Scowcroft Institute’s event website.

Panelists include Alan D. T. Barrett, director of the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas; Mahesh Kumar, senior vice president of Global Biologics R&D, Zoetis, Inc.; Benjamin Neuman, professor of biology and chief virologist of the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University; and Dr. Jennifer Shuford, chief state epidemiologist at the Texas Department of State Health Services.

An introduction will be given by Dr. Gerald W. Parker, Jr., associate dean for Global One Health at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. The panel will be moderated by Allison Ficht, senior associate vice president for research, regent’s professor and director of the Center for Microencapsulation and Drug Delivery at the Texas A&M College of Medicine.