Positive signs of how well equipped we are to handle a pandemic


Insurance Ireland was delighted to host its first ever webinar for the II-Milliman CRO forum on the 14th of May.

We were privileged to hear from Dr. Achim Regenauer, Chief Medical Officer, PartnerRe who gave us an overview of the Corona pandemic, focusing on the facts and how it is likely to evolve over the short and medium term.

We were privileged to hear from Dr. Achim Regenauer, Chief Medical Officer, PartnerRe who gave us an overview of the Corona pandemic, focusing on the facts and how it is likely to evolve over the short and medium term.

What was covered

In his dialogue with Florian Wimber, Dr Regenauer’s covered the following topics:

  • COVID-19 disease patterns and progression
  • Vaccines how fast?
  • Morbidity and mortality of COVID-19?
  • Reinfection – immunity only for a limited time
  • Mutation and Genomics – does SARS-CoV2 change?
  • Do we now face more often pandemics in the future?
  • What happens after lockdowns, e.g. 2nd wave?
  • Can Digitisation help to contain this pandemic?

The presentation was followed by a lively Q&A session which allowed participants to probe further on some of the points that Dr Regenauer rasied.

Key messages

As we approach the second half of 2020 we can see the enormous social and economic impact as we continue to battle the virus on multiple fronts.

Social distancing works. Ignorance and laissez-faire don’t. Neither do herd immunity strategies. Societies where social distancing measures were implemented have had better outcomes in “flattening the curve” – as witnessed in Ireland and in comparison to the UK who went into lock-down later.

It is highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 will disappear completely once the threshold is surpassed: we can expect smaller ongoing regional outbreaks in the years to come and post the pandemic stage.

Longitudinal large-scale testing for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 will provide information on the extent and duration of immunity and will help assess the pandemic’s dynamics over the coming months and years.

We need an international health strategy to push back the virus and to prepare for future pandemics. The development of vaccines is on the way and multiple initiatives have entered trial-periods. However, the success rate of vaccines is usually quite low (1 in 10).

Dr. Regenauer’s insights are published on the PartnerRe website and are regularly updated.

The mechanics

Nearly 50 people signed into the webinar from their remote locations.

Insurance Ireland’s new CEO, Moyagh Murdock, welcomed the participants to our first virtual event.

Eamonn Phelan, Principal, Milliman, and Chair of the Forum, and his colleague Eoin King, Consulting Actuary, Milliman opened and closed the event.

Whilst we all miss the social interaction and networking, the webinar was a success and ensures we can continue to hear from experts whilst we work remotely.

Milliman

We would particularly like to thank Eamonn and Eoin for their and Milliman’s contributions and continued support in bringing valuable content to our CRO forum.

Date for your diaries

Here are the dates for the II-Milliman forum for the rest of the year:

29 September at 10am (webinar)

1 December at 10am (webinar)

If you have any suggestions/requests in relation to subjects you would like to see covered by the forum please contact Nessa.feehan@insuranceireland.eu

Please check our website for details of upcoming events/webinars: https://www.insuranceireland.eu/events