LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT: VACCINATION IS A LIFE ISSUE

The LMU Center for Religion and Spirituality invites you to this important discussion about the COVID-19 vaccine from a Catholic perspective, moderated by New York Times best-selling author and Catholic speaker Jeannie Gaffigan.

The global pandemic that began in January 2020 has challenged every aspect of our lives: Health and well-being, religion, economics, politics, and ethics have all been tested by a seemingly unrelenting wave of anger, grief, and fear. This webinar will address some of the pressing issues raised by the pandemic from a Catholic and Christian perspective.

A panel of experts moderated by author Jeannie Gaffigan will answer questions such as: Is COVID-19 really a threat? Is the vaccine dangerous for me? Am I morally obligated to get vaccinated? Are there risks to fertility and pregnancy? Can we trust the government and the health care system?

Emphasizing Catholic and Christian perspectives and solutions, scientists, theologians, and health care professionals will sort out the real knowledge from the misinformation in an hourlong discussion aimed at improving understanding of this public health crisis and what each of can do to bring it to an end. 

Panel

• Sr. Mary Haddad, R.S.M. is president and chief executive officer at The Catholic Health Association of the United States.
• Rev. Nicanor Austrico, O.P., Ph.D. is a Filipino-American molecular biologist and Catholic priest. He is a professor of biology and professor of theology at Providence College, in Providence, Rhode Island, and a research fellow at the Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics, at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.
• Daniel Chavira, M.D. is associate clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, as well as an emergency physician and medical director of clinical observation at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. MLK was considered the “epicenter of the epicenter” of COVID in the world. At MLK, Dr. Chavira runs the unit responsible for outpatient treatment of high risk COVID patients as well as acting as a lead in the airway teams that are responsible for intubating, coding, and performing life-saving procedures on COVID patients.
• Thomas V. Cunningham, Ph.D. is the bioethics program director with Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center and lecturer for the Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He formerly taught at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and was clinical ethicist at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
• Nancy Hernadez Heyne, M.D. is a doctor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital.
• Tommy F. Heyne, M.D. is a theologian and doctor of internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty.
   

To Participate
This event is free and open to the public, and will be streamed on Facebook Live at noon Pacific Daylight Time (3 p.m. EDT). Viewers will be able to participate in the Q&A via the comments section.