Larissa Lamarca
Contributing Writer
The 2019 Great Decisions of Wayne County Lecture Series is about to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. with a film screening of “The Unseen Enemy,” a documentary that explores the complexity of public health conditions and their potential to become a global pandemic. This year the event will discuss the topic of “Global Health Issues” and take place in Gault Recital Hall inside Scheide Music Center.
Following the film screening, on Thursday, Feb. 7, Nathan Wolfe, founder and CEO of Metabiota and founder of Global Viral, and otherwise well-known figure in the world of medicine, will present his topic, “Before The Strike: Viral Forecasting for Pandemic Prevention.” After his talk he will be selling and signing copies of his book, “Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age.” On Tuesday, Feb. 19, “The Opioid Crisis: Economic, Legal and Clinical Perspectives” will be presented by Sanho Tree, Thomas Todosio and Nicole Labor. They each work around the area and work for various drug related agencies. The final speaker, Diane Jorkasky ’73, is an expert on drug development and medicine on a global scale. This lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 26, “The Complexities of Conducting International Clinical Research,” will cover much of her own research and years of experience in the business.
This year’s topic followed that of previous years. Last spring a group of C.O.W students including Emmanuel Burton ’20, Alexandria Gordon ’18, Jordan Griffith ’19, Brianna Schmidt ’20, Margaret Sestito ’18, Cami Steckbeck ’19 and Emma Woods ’18, along with Executive Director and Coordinator of the event Tom Tierney, professor of sociology and anthropology at the College, met to discuss the topic choice.
With hot topics such as access to insurance, drug prices and the opioid crisis, they determined this was the topic to go with. Tierney listed the reasons he saw in choosing this topic “first, health issues have become an increasingly important dimension of public discourse; second, there is a growing interest in public health from College of Wooster students across a wide range of disciplines and third, the Great Decision series could provide an opportunity for C.O.W students and the local community to consider such issues in a global context.”
With some students graduating last spring semester, the remainder of the planning group along with a new Wooster high school student, Corinne Wiles, finished putting together the health-related topics for the overall theme. Tierney said, “We shared ideas about documentaries and speakers that could address a wide range of health-related issues, and then met with the Great Decisions of Wayne County board to discuss the issues that had risen to the top of our list. Based on feedback we received from the board, we narrowed the series down to the four events on this year’s schedule.”
Participants to this year’s lecture can expect to gain a deeper understanding of health-related hot topics such as addiction and infectious disease threats. They will also gain a clear picture of the level of trust and cooperation that is required among numerous international entities. As Tierney put it, “While the impact of disease is, of course, most acutely felt at the personal, individual level, the prevention or mitigation of illness often requires a public health response that transcends national borders.” In addition to all of the above, the event will also include refreshments after the presentation and a chance for attendants from each lecture to enter a drawing for a potential gift card prize.