ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのLife after COVID: will our masks ever come off? | Stella Kyriakides | TEDxYouth@EEB3

Hello everyone,

I’m very really happy to be taking part in my first ever TEDx talk with you today.

Thank you Kimon and Frank for inviting me, and to you all for tuning in.

Today we’re talking about “new beginnings”.

After such a challenging year, so different at many levels, it is important to be able to speak about new beginnings, and be able to see what is ahead.

COVID-19 has changed our everyday lives and the way we communicate with each other.

We’ve had to spend time apart from the people we care about, we have not been able to be with our friends to have little escapes from our routines.

Your school life has been disrupted.

You, your teachers and your parents all deserve many gold stars for adapting so well to the new conditions.

And many of us know people who’ve found it hard to get treatment for other conditions at a time where COVID is the top priority.

With all this to deal with, it’s no surprise that at times we’ve felt lonely, sad or anxious about the future.

It’s sometimes hard to even dream about life after COVID.

But things are getting better.

It’s time to think about new beginnings.

And to look forward to a happier time, when at last we’ll be able to take our masks off, to smile and see each other’s faces smiling back at us.

As the famous writer Oscar Wilde once said: "When it rains, look for rainbows; when it's dark, look for stars.”

Right now, my job as European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety is to help us move away from the rain and the dark towards a future of rainbows and stars.

Of course, I’m not doing that all by myself.

In line with the principles of the European Union, the European Commission, EU countries and parliaments are working as a team.

We are building what we call a European Health Union to deal with future health threats and pursue our many important health priorities together.

The money to pay for this is in our new EU4Health programme, which will give you, our younger generation, a safer future – with better hospitals, better healthcare and medicines.

And when I say “you”, I mean all of you.

Because we want to get rid of inequalities between countries and within countries.

The kind of healthcare you receive shouldn’t depend on where you come from.

Our Health Union is about putting your physical and mental wellbeing first.

Lots of the building blocks we need to build the healthcare we deserve are already in place or taking shape.

Let me give you some examples.

In March, we finished the first Comprehensive Strategy on the Rights of the Child, so that we can better promote and protect your rights.

Part of this work will be about sharing knowledge to create a better future. Like we are doing today.

The ups and downs that young people have experienced during the pandemic will be part of a conference on mental health on 10 May. We’ll speak with doctors, nurses, patients and people working in international health organisations about what we can do to help.

I know how difficult it has been for many young people to have lockdowns, to have the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

We will highlight many of these areas in our conference carrying on with the hard work to promote mental health and prevent mental illness among all people in the EU.

Fighting the pandemic needs to be at all levels and now we are focusing on our physical health.

The EU’s vaccine campaign is an important part of this fight. We have already started vaccinating older and more vulnerable adults. Some of your older relatives may have received their jabs by now.

Because we’re a team, we’ve shared out the vaccines fairly across the EU, because we believe in equality and fairness of access.

We’ve also shared vaccines with dozens of countries around the world, through the ground-breaking COVAX facility.

We’ve done that because sharing vaccines is not only morally right – it also makes sense.

Because none of us will be safe until we’re all safe.

Of course, COVID hasn’t stopped people from falling ill in other ways and needing treatment.

We never stopped looking into how we can do better in areas like dealing with medicine shortages or preventing cancer and other diseases.

These days, taking medicine can involve much more than just taking a pill. We can use smartphones to help us. And we have genome editing and artificial intelligence to find therapies and vaccines faster than ever before.

Despite technology evolving so rapidly, simple infections can still become resistant to our antibiotics and pharmacies can run out of basic medicines.

Sometimes we need legislation to help us.

That’s why we’ve come up with what we call our Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe. It will help us keep up with innovation, protect us in any future pandemics and give all of us access to affordable medicines.

Our Beating Cancer Plan for the EU is another new kid on the block. We’ll use it to fight this disease that affects so many across the Eu. You yourselves may have the experience of someone in your family or friends living with cancer.

Cancer can be diagnosed at any age. So, the EU will invest in research to better understand why children and young adults diagnosed with cancer and to make more suitable medicines available to young cancer patients. We will help parents caring for children with cancer; and we will help cancer survivors continue living a normal life.

There is a great deal we can do to prevent cancer. And you need to be aware of this as prevention is key.

You can find out more from our online European Code on Cancer. It offers lots of helpful advice, like not smoking or drinking too much alcohol;

avoiding too much sun;

keeping physically active;

and eating healthily – which means more fruit and vegetables and less sugar.

This is advice for people of all ages.

So don’t hesitate to show the Code to the grown-ups in your family. It’s never too late to learn. We can all be part of a bigger goal!

We can change the face of cancer in Europe and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families.

Now, as we prepare for new beginnings in a post-COVID world, we should all be thinking about doing our bit to build a brighter future.

A future in which we can take our masks off, smile, and hug one another again.

You are tomorrow’s doctors, teachers, researchers, artists, environmentalists – and, perhaps, even Commissioners!

You are Europe’s future.

You can help shape a Europe that is more united, healthier, stronger and fairer for all.

In the words of the world’s most famous teenager, Greta Thunberg:

Together and united, we are unstoppable.

So let’s keep going.

We’ll get through this pandemic together.

Better times are ahead. That rainbow is in our sights.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves and look after one another.

Thank you.