Registration Link: For HKU members
How to Agree and Disagree about Vaccine Mandates? Oxford Debate and Ethics Masterclass Featuring Professor Daniel Wikler
Co-organisers:
Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, HKUMed
Department of Emergency Medicine, HKUMed
School of Public Health, HKUMEd
Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health (D²4H)
Date & Time: 30 July 2025 (Wed) at 3:00 – 4:30 pm (HKT)
Venue: Mrs Chen Yang Foo Oi Telemedicine Centre, 2/F, Room A2-08, William MW Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road
Registration Link: For HKU members
Story Line: Imagine that Hospital X currently mandates Covid vaccination for all clinical staff including students. Mr. A and Ms. S have reservations about the vaccination policy from a public health perspective. Further imagine that Hospital X is committed to open ethical deliberation of its policies and that representatives of its point of view will debate with Mr. A and Ms. S on the following proposition:
“Mandating COVID vaccination is ethically justified.”
Activities: (i) Debate by students, (ii) Masterclass by Professor Daniel Wikler and (iii) Q&A session
Masterclass: Professor Daniel Wikler will present a master class on the ethics of persuasion in public health. He will help to outline what is productive, non-productive, and counter-productive in discourse about whether to accept public health advice and whether to punish or stigmatize non-acceptors.
Speaker:
Professor Daniel Wikler
Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Ethics and Population Health, Emeritus
Global Health and Population,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Biosketch:
Prof Wikler served as the first Staff Ethicist for the World Health Organization, and served as Staff Philosopher for the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Prof Wikler was co-founder and second president of the International Association of Bioethics.
Professor Wikler’s published work addresses many issues in bioethics, including issues in reproduction, transplantation, and end-of-life decision-making in addition to population and international health. He served as editor of the Cambridge University Press series Studies in Philosophy and Health Policy, and is co-editor of the Oxford University Press series Population-Level Bioethics. Among his books are From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice (Cambridge), WHO’s Casebook on Ethical Issues in International Health Research; Inequalities in Health: Concepts, Measures, and Ethics (Oxford), and Measuring the Global Burden of Disease: Philosophical Dimensions (Oxford), mostly co-authored or co-edited with colleagues associated with the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health.
Welcome to join us!
Enquiry: Please contact Mr Edison Cheng (mehu@hku.hk).