“COVID Treatments and Vaccines”  What do we need and What do we have to beat the pandemic
Oct 13, 2020
Dr. Joel Ernst, UCSF
“COVID Treatments and Vaccines” What do we need and What do we have to beat the pandemic

Joel Ernst trained in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, and in Hematology and Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.  He joined the faculty at UCSF where he established a research program in host-pathogen interactions and immunity, and cared for patients with infectious diseases, including the earliest AIDS patients, at San Francisco General Hospital.  He was recruited to the NYU School of Medicine in 2003, where he was Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology as well as Director of the Graduate Program in Immunology and Inflammation, and Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Microbiology.  In 2018, he was recruited to UCSF where he is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Experimental Medicine. 

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has changed every aspect of life for billions of people.  The cause is an RNA virus, termed SARS-CoV-2, that is transmitted by the respiratory route and that leads to diverse clinical consequences.  Global control of COVID-19 will depend on development and deployment of vaccines that are safe, able to be produced rapidly in hundreds of millions (or billions) of doses, and inexpensive.  Likewise, preventing complications and mortality requires development and clinical use of drugs that control the infection and that prevent and treat the complications.  This presentation will feature general information about the infection, general principles of antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs, and principles of vaccine development, testing, and implementation.  It will also provide a summary of the present status of drug and vaccine development for COVID-19.