Saud Anwar

Senator Anwar Addresses the World Conference on Covid-19 and Critical Care with Physicians from Across the Globe

State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) spoke this weekend at the World Conference on COVID-19 and Critical Care, an international event dedicated to global efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Anwar joined thousands of doctors worldwide who listened to and participated in the event, providing his own point of view and experiences due to his roles and responsibilities in the pandemic. This event, held virtually and featuring professionals from around the world including India, was intended to further conversations about ending the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing future ones using the lessons learned in the last two years.

Sen. Anwar, who is a practicing pulmonologist and intensivist, spoke on COVID-19 and policymaking, given his unique perspective as both a legislator and a physician during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his talk, on the topic of “COVID-19 and Public Policy: Making People Happy Or Keeping Them Alive,” Sen. Anwar discussed policymaking and executive choices, decisions, and messaging made and distributed in different parts of the world, noting the differences in respective outcomes. One thing was made clear: where policy makers did not work collaboratively with scientists and public health professionals, health outcomes were poor and resulted in higher morbidity and mortality during the various phases and peaks of the pandemic.

Sen. Anwar also deliberated about some examples of where things worked well and talked about the urgent need for future alignment of public health and disaster management professionals with policymakers to help better management of disasters. Early coordination, developing basic understanding of the disaster and having evidence and science-based management will improve protections of citizens. Disasters are tragedies, he said, and not learning from them to save more lives is also a tragedy.