REPORT FROM THE SYMPOSIUM “COVID-19 PANDEMIC: MESSAGES, NEW KNOWLEDGE AND DILEMMAS”

At the beginning of June (04/06/2021) Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) organized a Symposium called “COVID-19 Pandemic: Messages, New Knowledge and Dilemmas”. It was one of the most significant activities of SASA in the continuity of its work since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Namely, back in March 2020, a Commission was formed at SASA, based on self-initiative, to monitor the course of Covid pandemic.

The Commission provided information to SASA members, presented public scientific explanations on the SASA website, promoted vaccination (in general, but also at SASA and its institutes), determined its work according to certain events that were questionable from the aspect of the pandemic and performed many other activities. The Symposium at SASA was organized in such a way that the participants were primarily SASA members, several distinguished professors of the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade as well as members of the SASA Board for Immunology and Allergology of the SASA Department of Medical Sciences.

The main topics were related to epidemiology, immunology, virology, pathology, vaccination and clinical aspects of both Covid-19 and Post-Covid syndrome. Clinical aspects involved diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and neurological complications and mental status. This event was an opportunity to present the rich scientific research work of SASA members and its associates in the field of COVID-19 infection, through the presentation of results published in prestigious international journals and the work on projects within the Special Research Program COVID-19 funded by the Science Fund of Serbia. It is important to note that three of the 14 projects in that program were assigned to SASA members. Soon after this Symposium, a scientific conference “Society Despite the Pandemic” https://www.sanu.ac.rs/en/scientific-conference-society-despite-the-pandemic/ was held at the SASA Branch in Novi Sad. Both symposia, which were open to the public, aroused great interest.