Although the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, assessments as to how successful individual countries have been in tackling it have run high. Among the Nordic countries, Sweden’s approach has largely been viewed with suspicion while Iceland and Norway appear to have been doing rather well. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s rapid response has been hailed as a success story in Asia. With a vaccine now being rolled out, this panel will outline how effectively both the Nordic countries and Taiwan have responded, the respective impact the pandemic has had on the population, as well as explore possible policy recommendations.

We are honored to welcome four distinguished speakers for this event. Therese Sefton is a Research Assistant with PRIO in Oslo, Norway. She holds an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Oslo University and is currently working on a research project on “Disparate Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Norway and Sweden: lessons and opportunities for the Nordic region”. Dr. Tove Fall is Professor of Molecular Epidemiology at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is one of the research leaders in “COVID Symptom Study” and “CRUSH Covid”. Prof. Runólfur Pálsson is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland, and the Director of the Department of Internal Medicine and Rehabilitation Services at Landspitali – The National University Hospital of Iceland. He was the co-author of a population-based cohort study on Covid-19 symptoms. Dr. Chun-Chien Kuo is a Professor at the National Taipei University of Business, Taiwan. In 2020, he published on Taiwan’s pandemic response and lessons learned. Larissa Stünkel, Junior Research Fellow with ISDP’s China Center, will moderate this event.