Other "Going Viral" Events
Staged Reading of “Kyrie”
This staged reading of E.B. Voigt’s lyric prose poem “Kyrie” is inspired by the Going Viral symposium. “Going Viral” will include multiple artistic and humanistic elements to broaden medical and public health understanding of the 1918 pandemic; this reading of “Kyrie,” which has been called “a meditation on the profound human costs of the 1918 global flu pandemic,” is another humanistic exploration. Doors to the Back Bar will open at 7 p.m.; the reading will begin at 7:30.
This event is free and open to the general public.
Pandemic Board Game Lunch
April 4, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Lower Atrium, Michael Hooker Research Center
“I’d just wiped out a virus known only as COdA-403a in Miami and Atlanta, boasting, ‘I just saved North America, okay?'” — from the NPR “Goats and Soda” review of the board game “Pandemic.”
UNC Gillings students, faculty, staff and alumni are invited to the first annual Pandemic Board Game Lunch! The Dean’s Office will provide free pizza for all players. Four-person teams will work collaboratively to save the world from disease outbreaks, and all students will be eligible to enter a raffle for FREE tickets to the Going Viral symposium!
This event is part of National Public Health Week and is linked with the “Going Viral” interdisciplinary symposium.
This event is free and open to UNC Gillings students, faculty, staff and alumni; online registration is required.
O Lost! The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Thomas Wolfe and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918
April 4, 6-8 p.m.
Wilson Library
This event will feature an exhibition of rare materials from the UNC Libraries’ North Carolina Collection, including items from the Thomas Wolfe Collection, the University Archives and the Health Sciences Library. Guest speakers will highlight the impact the 1918 flu had at UNC, and how the pandemic influenced the life and literature of UNC alumnus Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward, Angel.
This event is free and open to the general public; online registration is required.
Livestream of a Going Viral session
April 5, 2:35-4:35 p.m.
Watch online!
Virtually join the symposium session on “Aspiring to Predict and Prevent the Next Pandemic,” which will include talks on the following topics:
- “Pandemic Influenza: Global Health Meets Global Health Security”
- “Using Digital Tools and Citizen Science for Pandemic Surveillance, Prevention and Preparedness”
- “The Intersection of Pandemics and Biopreparedness”
- “The Economic Impact of Pandemics”
- “The National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness”
This event is free and open to the general public.
Gillings Family Day at the Museum of Natural Sciences
April 7, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Nature Research Center, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh
The Gillings School Family Day at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences‘s Nature Research Center will make key lessons from the Going Viral symposium accessible to curious minds of all ages!
Experts from the Museum, the Gillings School, RTI International and the Smithsonian Institution have teamed up to develop a day-long event designed to help the public understand the risks, newest science and best ways to predict, prevent, prepare for and respond to an infectious disease pandemic.
The event will focus primarily on flu, but the content and interactive experiences also will be applicable to other infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS, Zika and Ebola. Family Day will feature both live speakers from Gillings and RTI and table-top exhibitors with local public health practitioners and students from area universities (including Gillings!)… plus a great deal of fun!
Events and speakers at the Daily Planet Theatre in the Museum’s Nature Research Center will include:
- 11:15 a.m.: Chance to win gift cards! Register online now to be entered into ta chance to win a gift card for the Museum gift shop, entry to other special museum exhibits and more!
- 11:30 a.m.: Timothy Sheahan, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School, will present: Ebola, SARS and MERS: Oh, my! Will we be prepared for the next pandemic?
- 1 p.m.: David Weber, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School; professor of medicine and pediatrics at UNC’s School of Medicine; medical director of UNC Hospitals’ Departments of Hospital Epidemiology and Occupational Health Service, will present: The ongoing threat of new and emerging infectious diseases leading to epidemics.
- 1:45 p.m.: Students and faculty from the Gillings School will present a dramatic reading of Kyrie, a mosaic of sonnets by E.B. Voigt that express the human experience of the 1918 flu pandemic.
- 2:30 p.m.: Brian Southwell, PhD, director of the Science in the Public Sphere program at RTI International; adjunct associate professor at the Gillings School; research professor at UNC’s School of Media and Journalism, will present: Why people matter for emerging infectious disease.
This event is free and open to UNC Gillings faculty, staff, students, alumni and their families. We can help arrange transportation, but require advance online registration so we can be aware of your needs.
The event will be held in the Museum’s Nature Research Center on 121 West Jones Street. (It’s the building with the beautiful globe!). Free parking is available nearby.
