UON, in conjunction with the Hunter Research Foundation Centre and CIFAL Newcastle, will host on Thursday the second session of Two Years with COVID-19: a tale of carrots, sticks and megaphones.

The discussion will see a panel of experts and global leaders from academia and industry discuss how the "emergence of variants, together with vaccine hesitancy, wait and see vs firm-hand approaches, communication and mental health challenges pose an increasing test to people, industries and policymakers navigating the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic".

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UON Professor Francesco Paolucci, who will chair the conversation, said Australia had taken a very "clinical and medical" approach in responding to the pandemic and the webinar was intended to "get us up to speed with the global debate" and explore challenges and solutions, including the World Health Organisation's One Health approach.

"Our aim is to bring these discussions to light while we are in it and while change is on the table before having the next phase, so-called living with COVID and moving on to things as usual of before," he said.

The panel includes Università Bocconi and Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development's Professor Aleksandra Torbica, Cootamundra-Gundagai mayor Abb McAlister, Taylor Fry Australia's Kirsten Armstrong, Hunter New England Health chief executive Michael DiRienzo and University of Technology and Tokyo Metropolitan University's Professor Joseph Drew. UON's Professor Catharine Coleborne will open the conversation and Professor Roberta Ryan will close it.

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