Racing with Vaccines: Data, Narratives, and Ethics

The spread of COVID-19 has produced grueling timeframes for drug companies, governments, and health systems to develop and deploy life-saving therapies, policies, and protocols to combat the global pandemic. This urgency exacerbates profound social and ethical questions, particularly related to the mass distribution of vaccines being rushed to market at unprecedented speed. In this conversation, faculty from the Bioethics, Narrative Medicine, and Applied Analytics programs consider complex questions about how we as a society can make equitable decisions and better understand data—from randomized controlled trials to individual experiences—as a form of narrative, and narrative as a form of data, particularly in the case of COVID, a novel pandemic. 

Panelists:  

Robert Klitzman, M.D. 
Program Director, M.S. in Bioethics, School of Professional Studies; Professor of Psychiatry (in Sociomedical Sciences), Columbia University Medical Center 

David Kreutter, Ph.D. 
Associate Director and Senior Lecturer in Applied Analytics, School of Professional Studies  

Danielle Spencer, Ph.D. 
Program Director, M.S. in Narrative Medicine, School of Professional Studies; Senior Lecturer in Discipline of Narrative Medicine

Moderated by:

Sameer H. Ladha, J.D., M.S.
'17SPS, Bioethics
Deputy Director, M.S. in Bioethics, School of Professional Studies

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