The pandemic center national conference 2022: "Pandemic, diversity and social inequality"

Over two years under the auspices of COVID-19 has taught us that pandemics occur regularly and represent major societal challenges that must be met in a sustainable way and with a knowledge base from all disciplines and good cooperation between academia, public institutions, business, volunteering and politicians. COVID-19 has also made visible and reinforced social inequalities in health and in the use of health services. Finding good solutions in the areas of interaction between these two societal challenges, pandemics and inequalities, can be an important key to better preparedness for the next pandemics. During the pandemic, the authorities lacked knowledge-based evidence as a basis for important decisions that could have unforeseen consequences. Coordination between agencies and services has improved in the last two years, but there is still potential for improvement. More and better collaboration between the disciplines is also necessary in the future to tackle such challenges. The over-representation of vulnerable groups such as immigrants, but also involvement in civil society during the pandemic also points to the fact that we need to include more actors in the best solutions. The diversity in society should be utilized for a better understanding of the importance of social inequality, how it affects health and quality of life and how best to improve preparedness before the next pandemic occurs. The academic environments, health and welfare services, civil society, business and users lack arenas for the exchange of experiences and joint reflection on good solutions now that the pandemic has hopefully calmed down. That is why we want to organize a national conference under the title "Pandemic, diversity and social inequality" where relevant professional fields and social actors meet to work towards better future pandemic preparedness and good health for all.