Chernobyl at 35: lessons for recovery - WHO and NRCRM Joint Webinar (REMPAN webinars series)

On 26 April 2021, we marked the 35 years since the worst man-made nuclear disaster in the history of nuclear energy. The accident’s radiological and non-radiological consequences affected directly and indirectly the lives of millions of people in Europe. This anniversary offers an opportunity to take stock of lessons learned, reflect on the recovery process, and appreciate once again the heroic efforts of the first responders who rushed to the damaged reactor on 26 April 1986 and sacrificed their health, and in many cases their lives, to save others.
Today, when the world is fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic, similarities can clearly be seen between certain aspects of the response to COVID-19 and to a nuclear accident. Interventions, such as identifying affected persons/screening, triage, contamination and decontamination measures, hospitals surge capacity, public sheltering, communicating risks, use of social media, infodemic, managing rumors and social stigmatization of affected people, also apply to radiological hazards. In addition, like the Chernobyl aftermath, transition and return to normality after the ongoing pandemic will need to use a decision-making process based on a firm evidence base.

The webinar was organized jointly by WHO and the WHO Collaborating Center for Radiation Emergency Medicine – National Research Center for Radiation Medicine (NRCRM) in Kiev, Ukraine. The main focus of the webinar was on the lessons learned from the Chernobyl in terms of improvement of the national response arrangement as well as mitigation of the largest health-related impact of the accident – psychosocial and mental health consequences, which are closely related to the socio-economic factors, community engagement, and risk communication strategies. Like COVID-19, Chernobyl continue causing persisting fears and myths about its true health consequences. The parallels were drawn with the management of infodemic during Covis-19 response and risk communication after a nuclear emergency.

PROGRAMME
Moderator: Dr. Zhanat Carr (WHO)
13.00 – 13.10 – Welcome addresses – J. Habicht (WHO), D. Bazyka (NRCRM, Ukraine)
13.10 – 13.30 – Chernobyl lessons for preparedness to radiation emergencies – D. Bazyka (Ukraine)
13.30 – 13:45 – UNDP’s work om mitigation of socio-economic consequences of Chernobyl – M. Sait-Ametov (Ukraine)
13:45 – 14.05 – Mental health impact of the Chernobyl disaster - E. Bromet (USA) and J. Havenaar (The Netherlands)
14.05 – 14.25 – Risk communication in health emergencies – lessons of COVID19 – P. Meschenmoser (Austria)
14.25-14:45 – WHO Framework on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in case of radiation emergencies – Z. Carr and F. Hanna (WHO)
14:45-15:00 – Q&A