Health is Wealth under the Coronavirus | Clarissa da Costa and Xinjing Jiang

Can we put a price on global health in the time of COVID-19? Mel and Steff interview Clarissa da Costa, an expert in infectious diseases, and Xinjing Jiang, a student from Wuhan, to discuss the potential fallout of the current pandemic. What lessons are we learning now that will make us more resilient in the future? (36m 34s)

Clarissa’s Bio

Prof. Dr. med. Clarissa Prazeres da Costa is an infectiologist and specialist in medical microbiology and infection epidemiology and co-founder and co-director of the Center for Global Health at the Technical University of Munich. For 14 years she has been leading her own research working group “Parasite Immunology” and the Department of Diagnostic Parasitology and is the teaching coordinator of the chair at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at TUM. Her scientific focus is on the basic immunological aspects of host-parasite interaction and other Th2 immune diseases, such as allergies, as well as zoonotic and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), especially in relation to mother-child health using molecular methods, experimental models and clinical research in Africa. Her activities in the field of global health are currently focusing on research in the field of NTDs and, more recently, on the establishment of an international research consortium on the subject of “Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)”. She publishes in high-ranking journals. Her research is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF), among others.

Xinjing’s Bio

Xinjing Jiang is an engineering student originally from Wuhan, China. She has spent the last 5 years studying and living in Europe, participating first in a program in Dresden, Germany followed by an exchange semester in Lausanne, Switzerland. Xinjing is currently completing an internship while living in Berlin.