The CWRU School of Law will host a webinar titled “Universal Immunization Against COVID: What Law and Society Can Do” via Zoom Thursday, Oct. 1, at noon. The webinar will feature:
- Michael Lederman, professor of medicine at CWRU School of Medicine;
- Maxwell J. Mehlman, director of the Law-Medicine Center at CWRU School of Law; and
- Stuart J. Younger, professor of bioethics and psychiatry.
In this webinar, experts in medicine, health care law and bioethics will discuss potential COVID vaccination policies. Lederman will begin by explaining what would make a COVID vaccine safe and highly effective and when one might be available, the nature and limits of herd immunity, and the health benefits from universal COVID vaccination. Mehlman will discuss legal considerations in fostering widespread vaccination, including the scope of the government’s authority to require vaccination, the steps that the private sector might take to foster widespread vaccination, and the extent to which the law is required to defer to individual choice. Youngner will conclude by examining the ethical principles involved in universal vaccination, and what we can learn from responses to analogous challenges in the past.