A multi-disciplinary panel presentation titled “Vaccines, Public Health and Mandates: A multi-disciplinary approach” will be held by the Center for Conflict Management (CCM), Department of Sociology and EX[L] Center on Thursday, October 7, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Microsoft Teams. 

Log-in information is available for the upcoming panel presentation with an RSVP to [email protected]. 

The panel presentation will focus on Covid-19 vaccinations, with topics such as vaccine efficiency and protection, vaccine ethics, Summa Health’s perspective, and how vaccines could end the pandemic.  

The presentation will feature four presentations, including: 

• ‘To boost or not to boost: Vaccine Efficacy and Protection against COVID-19’ by Hazel A. Barton, Ph.D., professor and director of integrated bioscience, The University of Akron 

• ‘Vaccine Ethics – an Ethical Framework’ by Jess Otto, Ph.D., assistant professor of instruction, The University of Akron 

• ‘COVID-19 a Summa Health Perspective’ by Iriel Hopkins, M.S.W, LSW System director, community relations and diversity, Summa Health, Community Benefit 

• ‘COVID-19 Vaccines: The tool to end the pandemic’ by Thomas M. File Jr., M.D. M.Sc. MACP, FIDSA, FCCP; chair, Infectious Disease Division; Summa Health, Akron; professor, internal medicine; Master Teacher; chair, infectious disease section, Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), Rootstown, Ohio; immediate past president, Infectious Diseases Society of America. 

Dr. Robert Peralta, a sociology professor at UA and director of CCM, said this seminar is geared toward “the University of Akron community, including students, staff, faculty and community partners.”   

The seminar is part of a series, titled “Multi-Disciplinary Scholarship and Approaches to Health and Social Justice,” and is sponsored by CCM and the Sociology Department.  

Despite anti-mask and vaccination protests on the campus, Peralta is hopeful this seminar will provide a safe, educational opportunity for discussion.   

“I am hoping the seminar will provide a space for good faith educational discussion. I want the space to be a place for our community to learn from one another in a safe and respectful atmosphere. I am hopeful that a world-class educational opportunity is what we will all experience,” he said.
 

For questions or to RSVP for the panel presentation, contact Dr. Robert Peralta, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Conflict Management, at [email protected].