On Wednesday, November 18, 2020, The Law & Health Care Program co-sponsored a webinar on “Global Health, Vaccines, and the Geopolitics of COVID-19.” Co-hosted with the University of Maryland Graduate School and its new M.S. in Global Health, the program featured L&HCP Professors Leslie Meltzer Henry, JD, PhD, MSc, of Maryland Carey Law and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and Trudy Henson, JD, MA, Public Health Program Director of the University of Maryland Center for Health & Homeland Security.
Along with their co-panelists, Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán, MD, MPH, Executive Director, InterAmerican Center for Global Health (CISG) CISG, and Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, FACP, FIDSA, Professor of Medicine, Professors Henry and Henson discussed how current international vaccine efforts are rearranging the global health geopolitical map and what this might mean for the future of global health governance and vaccine roll out projected for 2021. Discussing the current US and international vaccine development achievements and challenges, the speakers explored the ethical and legal implications of any such successful vaccine development, including the ethical distribution and geopolitical ramifications of an effective vaccine, as well as how the law may permit mandatory vaccinations. The panelists also explored the legal and logistical challenges to widespread distribution facing low and middle income countries and countries with a less centralized health care system. After the event, Dr. Guzmán described it as “a great nuanced conversation regarding the paths forward in vaccine development in order to reach an equitable distribution in months to come.”
To learn more, you can watch the webinar here.