Health Security in a Pandemic World: Implications for Sri Lanka
The Faculty of Defence & Strategic Studies of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) organized a discussion on health security on Friday 11th March 2022 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies Auditorium. This was considering the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the novel coronavirus a pandemic exactly two years ago. The guest speaker for the event was Dr. Anver Hamdani, Coordinating in-charge of Covid-19 and Director, Medical Technical Services of the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. Dr. Hamdani related the position of Sri Lanka’s health sector amidst the global pandemic with references to the social, political and economic spheres.
Dr. Hamdani commenced his talk by expressing his gratitude towards the tri-forces and the police for their part in managing the Covid-19 situation, whilst acknowledging the civil-military integration within Sri Lanka. He further highlighted the importance of timely political decision-making and commended the vaccination procedure. He detailed that a nation’s responsiveness to threats determine the structure of its resilience system. He further emphasised that Covid-19 should be taken as a learning experience and that accepting and adapting to new changes remains paramount. Dr. Hamdani, concluded his guest lecture by drawing attention to the responsibility of an individual as a citizen, quoting “Infection anywhere is a threat to the globe”. He expounded that discipline and honesty plays a key factor in managing the new normal and encouraged the participants to practice safety guidelines and educate their communities regarding the role they play.
The audience of the KDU comprised of senior academics, senior military officers, undergraduates following the BSc in Strategic Studies & International Relations from Intakes 37, 38 and 39.
