Should Colleges and Universities Mandate Vaccination for COVID-19? Debating Public Health & Community Trust

Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, is University Professor, Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law, and Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University. He is also Professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Gostin directs the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. He has been at the center of public policy and law through multiple epidemics from AIDS and SARS, to Ebola, MERS, and Zika. He currently works closely with the Biden administration and global institutions like WHO, the World Bank, and Gavi on the COVID-19 response. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of The Hastings Center.

Stephen B. Thomas, PhD, is Professor of Health Policy & Management, University of Maryland; Director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity; and Principal Investigator (with Dr. Sandra Quinn) for the NIH-NIMHD Center of Excellence in Race, Ethnicity & Health Disparities Research. One of the nation's leading scholars in the effort to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, Dr. Thomas has applied his expertise to address a variety of conditions from which minorities generally face far poorer outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Thomas has received numerous awards for his professional accomplishments, and over the years, his work has become recognized as one of the scholarly contributions leading to the 1997 Presidential Apology to Survivors of the Syphilis Study Done at Tuskegee. His current research focuses on the translation of evidence-based science on chronic disease into community-based interventions designed to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, is Regents Professor; McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health; the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP); and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. He is also a Professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an Adjunct Professor in the Medical School. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served as a high-level advisor on issues related to bioterrorism, public health preparedness, and infectious diseases.