CAZENOVIA — On March 19, the Cazenovia Forum will present a lecture by Dr. Shannon Magari titled “The Science of COVID-19: Controls, Testing, Vaccines, and What Lies Ahead.”
The presentation will be live-streamed at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
Magari is a visiting scientist at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health and a principal owner of Colden Corporation, where she serves as the vice president of health sciences and co-chair of the litigation support practice.
She holds a doctor of science in environmental health from Harvard University with a concentration in occupational epidemiology. She currently serves as the president of the Northeast Biological Safety Association.
Over the past year, Magari and her team have helped develop COVID-19 safety plans and conducted workplace audits to protect workers in a variety of industries, including energy production and distribution, healthcare, food, pharmaceutical, and television production.
During her presentation, Magari will discuss what COVID-19 control strategies should be continued, what can be eliminated, and what should be added as society navigates another year of the pandemic.
She will also review the current state of testing, what public health professionals are hoping for, and what can be expected throughout 2021.
A significant portion of the presentation will be dedicated to the COVID-19 vaccines, with particular focus on how the vaccine platforms work and what the safety and efficacy data are showing.
“At the end of a very stressful year, I’m hoping to recap some of what we know about COVID, what we might expect for the rest of the year, and most importantly, I want to review the vaccine science and safety, so folks can make decisions for themselves and their families about getting vaccinated,” Magari said.
The scientist was invited to speak by Cazenovia Forum Board of Directors President Diane Clark.
“Dr. Magari is one of my close friends and also a Cazenovia resident,” said Clark. “I have been aware of her work related to COVID-19 since March 2020 . . . She has been working nonstop since then helping her clients deal with health and safety issues related to the pandemic. She and I regularly talk about where science is headed with respect to the pandemic.”
After learning that Magari had delivered a well-received online lecture, titled “V is for Vaccine,” to Colden Corporation, Clark asked if she would consider speaking to the Cazenovia Forum’s audience via Zoom.
“I then brought the subject up at the forum’s planning meeting, [and the] board of directors unanimously agreed that this would be a wonderful gift to our community, if we could make it happen,” Clark said. “Shannon said she would be happy to speak and we settled on the day. We are thrilled about this happening.”
The presentation is free and open to public. Advance registration is required. Registration information is available at cazenoviaforum.com.
Established in 2006, the Cazenovia Forum is a non-profit organization that hosts regularly scheduled public affairs lecture series that offer citizens from Cazenovia and the surrounding areas the opportunity to hear nationally and internationally known experts on a variety of key issues, and to engage in thoughtful discussion.
