Second GCCN event tackles community questions on COVID-19 vaccines and cancer

The Global Cancer Coalitions Network hosted its second “Coalition Connection 2: COVID19 Vaccines & Cancer” virtual event on November 23. The event was moderated by Alex Filicevas, Executive Director of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition.

Formed in the wake of COVID-19, the Global Cancer Coalition Network is a collaboration of nine global cancer coalitions and alliances, representing 750 patient organisations working on behalf of 14 million cancer patients around the world. The World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition has been an active member of this informal coalition since the very beginning.

The event started by focusing on a panel discussion where experts answered questions from the audience about the COVID19 Vaccines through the lens of cancer care. The conversation was further moved by a discussion with three distinct experiences and projects. The subjects were relating to vaccine hesitancy in racialized and immigrant communities, the dispelling COVID19 vaccine myths, and the results of a recent COVID 19 Vaccine and Brain Tumour Patient Survey.

The guests for the event were:

Dr. Luis Graça – Professor of Immunology at the University of Lisbon and co-chair of the national technical advisory committee for the COVID19 vaccine in Portugal

Dr. Nicole Lamanna – Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Hematologic Malignancies Section of the Hematology/Oncology Division at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in the United States

Dr. Evandro de Azambuja – Oncologist and head of the medical support team located at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, Belgium.

Dr Alison Farmer – Psycho-Oncology Clinical Nurse, University Hospital Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Kathy Oliver – Chair and Founding Co-Director of the International Brain Tumour Alliance, in the United Kingdom.

Linda Odenigbo –  Pediatrician in Dayton, Ohio, United States.

Sabina Vohla-Miller – the founder of Unambiguous Science in Toronto, Canada.

Watch the first “Coalition Connection” event, hosted by GCCN on February 4, 2021.

Find out more and download the GCCN report.