A Contemporary History of the American West in the Virocene
Once again, viruses have altered the very fabric of our lives. This talk will discuss the past, present and future of the COVID pandemic. Based on his personal experiences and perspectives, Stanford virologist Bob Siegel will focus on the biological and medical aspects of infection. He will cover issues related to testing, treatment, vaccine development, public health, and culture. Professor Siegel will provide context for the pandemic and raise questions about what the pandemic has taught us about ourselves, the local community, the American West, and the nation as a whole. He will also elicit questions and discussion on these topics.
Professor Siegel will be joined in conversation by Lane Center Affiliated Scholar Phil Polakoff.
About Robert Siegel
Robert Siegel is a professor at Stanford in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He has secondary appointments in the Center for African Studies, the Master of Liberal Arts Program, the Program in Human Biology, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. Bob’s courses focus on virology and infectious disease, genetics and molecular biology, biogeography and ecology, Darwin and evolution, and photography.
Dr. Siegel has been teaching about viruses for 4 decades – a period covering a number of devastating viral pandemics as well as an explosion of knowledge regarding the nature of these remarkable subcellular pathogens. For 20 years, he ran the required preclinical curriculum related to microbiology and infectious disease at Stanford School of Medicine. He is frequently interviewed by the news media on matters related to the COVID19 pandemic.
About Phil Polakoff
Dr. Phil Polakoff’s distinguished career in health care spans 35 years. He is a health transformation advisor, and previously has worked in product and network development, care management, organizational and business development, policy formulation, communications and financing. He serves as the CEO and host of A Healthier We, a disruptive, innovative venture situated at the intersection of medicine/health and media. As an affiliated scholar at the Bill Lane Center, Dr. Polakoff is intimately involved with the Rural West initiative. In addition to his work at the Center, Dr. Polakoff is a consulting professor at Stanford’s School of Medicine. He is the author of five books and has published more than 200 articles.