Catalyze Magazine Spring 2021

K E N M O R I T S U G U
R E T I R E D U S S U R G E O N G E N E R A L
I D E A G E N D Y N A M I C R E S I L I E N C Y
2 0 2 1 S U M M I T
George Sifakis: How is this moment different
than any other that you've seen. And are you
optimistic about the future health of our nation
and the planet when it comes to future health
challenges, including future pandemics,
Dr. Moritsugu: Frankly, what we are facing
right now in a COVID 19 pandemic is not
unique. We have faced challenges of this sort
before, the Spanish flu, ebola, et cetera. What
we are facing, however, is an order of
magnitude that we have not seen for decades,
if not centuries. That, I think has a great
impact on individuals and on systems. And as
I have said earlier, we've got to remember that
we are individuals who exist within a
community and that the community exists to
support the individual. Coming out of COVID
19, as we see the advent of vaccines that imply
we're ready to turn the corner. We've got to
remember that we've got both elements. The
individual and the community that have got to
work in concstent. Again, connecting the dots,
the community, whether it be your local
government, the state government, or the
national government can provide guidance,
can provide access and resources to vaccines,
to health professionals. But then at the same
time, we as individuals have got to understand
we've got a responsibility as well.
Dr. Moritsugu: We're fortunately sitting six feet
apart. We were wearing masks before we sat at this
table. We are engaged in socially distancing. We
don't go to restaurants or to meetings in small
closed and enclosed areas or have gatherings of
large numbers. All of these are individual
responsibilities that we as individuals can act on or
not act on, and therein lies the solution, the real
solution, the individual behaving in the community
and the community supporting the individual.
For more information about the event, please
visit: https://www.ideagensummits.com/ CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 10