The specialised portal Animal’s Health, dedicated to animal health and welfare and aimed at professionals in these fields, published on 21 November an extensive feature on the scientific session held a few days earlier by the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia, the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), and the Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Catalonia under the title “Vacunes i salut individual i col·lectiva, un equilibri necessari”, hosted at the headquarters of the first institution. The aim was to address human and animal health from a multidisciplinary perspective, championing the concept of One Health.
Dra. Maria Àngels Calvo
The session featured presentations by: Maria Àngels Calvo, Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, President of the Academy of Veterinary Sciences, Numerary Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia, and Numerary Member and Vice-President of the READ; Jordi Martí, Professor of Economics and Accounting at the University of Barcelona, Director of the Master’s in Verification of Non-Financial Information at the same institution, and Numerary Member and member of the Governing Board of the READ; and Núria Torner, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona and Numerary Member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia.
During the session—part of the Week of the Academies, organised by the Inter-Academic Council of Catalonia to mark the opening of the new academic year—the three experts highlighted the critical importance of vaccination campaigns and the need to counter growing anti-vaccine movements with solid scientific arguments, as reported by Animal’s Health. The publication placed special emphasis on Calvo’s address, noting that she had been recognised with the Woman of the Year Award as the most influential woman in Animal and Veterinary Health.
“Calvo focused her address on the importance of the One Health concept, of which she is one of the main introducers in Spain, and called for integrated responses to end the threat posed by zoonoses in the transmission of diseases that seriously affect humans. She appealed for a multidisciplinary approach to these public-health challenges, since any alteration of the environment caused by human activity represents a risk that must be addressed even beyond the fields of medicine or veterinary science,” the portal explains.
Dr. Jordi Martí
Martí, for his part, underlined how, from an economic perspective, natural resources and health itself must be considered core capital assets that must be preserved after decades of unrestrained growth at their expense, with minimal investment. Torner offered a critical analysis of universal vaccination and the strategies needed to foster trust and shared responsibility, noting that vaccines are estimated to have saved millions of lives and are widely regarded as one of the greatest advances in the history of medicine.
Animal’s Health also reported on the information disseminated by the READ regarding the Inaugural Session of the Academic Year of the Catalan Academies, held on 12 November at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya and presided over by Salvador Illa, who highlighted the role of the academies in promoting the common good and social progress. “Catalonia cannot afford to waste your potential and capacity for knowledge, because academic work is a driving force of prosperity“, Illa stressed.
