By Dateline Staff, University News

"A COVID-19 public awareness symposium is scheduled for Thursday, April 23, organized by Distinguished Professor Walter Leal and featuring UC Davis experts in immunology, infectious diseases, pathology and emergency medicine.

Ron Chapman, the Yolo County public health officer, and state Sen. Richard Pan, a physician from Sacramento, also will participate as main speakers. Chancellor Gary S. May will give welcome remarks.

The free program also will include presentations on face masks and modeling systems. Questions for the panel are welcome in advance (see box).

“It is heartbreaking to hear the number of people dying every day,” said Leal, who also coordinated a 2016 public awareness symposium on the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

“We have well-qualified people to address questions from the populace, so I thought I would put my organizing skills and experience with modern teaching technologies at the service of the public.”

Leal, of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences, will be the moderator. The webinar will appear on his Biochemistry Channel on YouTube.

The main speakers:

• Nicole Baumgarth, professor, Center for Comparative Medicine, and Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine
• Stuart Cohen, professor and chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, and director, Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, School of Medicine
• Nathan Kuppermann, professor and chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
• Emanuel Maverakis, professor, departments of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and Dermatology, School of Medicine
• Ron Chapman, public health officer, Yolo County, who formerly served as California health officer and director of the Department of Public Health
• Richard Pan, chair of the Senate Committee on Health and a member of the Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response

Other presenters:

• You-Lo Hsieh, distinguished professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and an expert on textiles and clothing, explaining the differences between regular masks, surgical masks and N95 masks, plus what the public can do when masks are unavailable
• James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology and an authority on population biology and modeling"

Read full story at the UC Davis News website.