We know that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been equally distributed; older and younger adults have been disproportionately impacted, as well as people who already experience health inequities, intersecting inequities, and broader systemic inequities.

The pandemic has had vast and lasting impacts on us all and it has greatly exacerbated existing inequities for those already made vulnerable due to systemic barriers. It has shown us where we need to provide better, stronger public health solutions. We have much work to do to recover and address the societal consequences of the pandemic, and protect everyone in BC as we begin to live safely and thoughtfully with the current state.

We are committed to prioritizing BC’s recovery, addressing the societal consequences of the pandemic, and supporting BC through this next phase through our newest campaign, Your Health, Our Commitment.

Since February 2020, we’re proud to be playing an important role in supporting BC’s COVID-19 public health response. Over the past few years, thanks to our donors and partners, we’re supporting: population health monitoring critical for decision-making that is grounded in experiences; vaccine research, including vaccine effectiveness and helping to build vaccine confidence; key tools such as wastewater testing; and much more.

From understanding how the virus mutates and spreads, to the rapid development of novel vaccines, we’ve learned so much about the science of COVID-19, and we’re in a much different place than we were a few years ago. At the same time, we’ve also learned quite a bit about the societal aspects of the pandemic as well.

Just as we were able to come together in early 2020 in response to the pandemic, it’s time to mobilize again to rebuild, reimagine, and recover. Together, we can design a stronger, healthier, more equitable future. This is our commitment to your health.

Through Your Health, Our Commitment, we will keep working with our partners and donors to support BC in preparing for, and responding to, threats to the health of our communities now and into the future.

You can be a part of this next phase, too. By donating to Your Health, Our Commitment, you join a community of donors, public health organizations, government, academics, health practitioners, and other funders to foster healthy communities and strengthen our responses for the future.

A gift to Your Health, Our Commitment will:

• support research and people;
• address the long-term negative societal and health impacts of the pandemic;
• provide critical public health solutions for capacities and infrastructure;
• translate knowledge to action in practice and policy;
• bolster collaboration across the public health sector;
• mobilize evidence-based information to increase public knowledge; and
• enable us to direct funding in a responsive, and nimble way as we continue to deal with the flux of our times.

We invite you to join us with a donation to Your Health, Our Commitment and help us support pandemic recovery, strengthen public health, and build resilient communities for all.

The post Your Health, Our Commitment: Our New Campaign to Support Pandemic Recovery, Strengthen Public Health, and Build Resilient Communities For All appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The post Newsletter #32: January 2022 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Dr. Sarah Henderson and her team have been awarded funds to study how exposure to forest fire impacts outcomes during pregnancy and early life.

Dr. William Hsiao and his team have been awarded funding to conduct a pilot study examining the replacement of one method of genomic sequencing of influenza samples with another, that ultimately may help inform whether seasonal influenza vaccines are being reformulated in a timely enough manner to be effective.

Dr. Inna Sekirov and her research team have been granted funds for a study to determine if a particular TB test is more effective than another currently in use, that may also be a better indicator of whether it is an active or latent infection.

Dr. Michael Otterstatter has been awarded travel funds for a team member for Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) International User Conference.

For BCCDC Faculty interested in applying for funding, be sure to watch your email inboxes in late August for the announcement of the fall competition; the next round of applications will be reviewed in October 2018. To see some of our past research successes, click through to our main research page on our website, or you can review all posts in this blog for other successful OAP applications by clicking on the Open Awards Program category.

The post Open Awards Program: Four Successful Applications for Spring 2018 Competition appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Dr. Brunham, who is the former Executive and Scientific Director of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, was integral in establishing the BCCDC Foundation in 2004, and in building it into a key partner of the BCCDC over the past decade. He remains an Advisory Member of the Board of Directors and we are lucky to have his expertise at our fingertips.

Dr Brunham is Head of the Vaccine Research Laboratory at the University of British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and is an international expert on infectious diseases and well known for his research on Chlamydia, SARS and HIV. He led BC’s response in the 2003 SARS crisis, as well as the avian influenza outbreak and the second wave of pandemic H1N1.

Congratulations to Dr. Brunham on this achievement!

The post Dr Robert Brunham Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.