This forum zooms in on the race to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 Coronavirus through a diversity of academic and professional disciplines: medicine, medical history, sociology, statistics, social media studies, public health, immunology, political science, industrial engineering, supply chain management, and chemical engineering. In so doing, the forum’s instructors situate the COVID-19 vaccine within a broader narrative of the science of immunization, the history of vaccines, the social and economic inequalities produced by deploying a vaccine, and the challenges presented to the global supply chain.
Please also access the Honors College Blog to see reflections on this course from current students.
Forums from 2021
Forum 1: Social Inequality, Justice, and Vaccine Intent and Distribution in the United States, Grant Drawve, Kevin Fitzpatrick, and Casey Harris
Vaccine Forum Syllabus, Lynda Coon
Forum 3: Immunology and the Vaccine, Jeannine Durdik and David McNabb
Forum 4: The Role of Chemical Engineers in Vaccine Development and Manufacturing, Bob Beitle and Shannon Servoss
Forum 5: Understanding Vaccine Efficacy and Effectiveness: A Statistician's Perspective/Open Access STEM research, Jyotishka Datta and Angie Ohler
Forum 6: Humanistic Health and the History of Vaccine Hesitancy: Lessons from Then and Now, Casey Kayser and Kaitlyn Akel
Forum 7: Social Media and the Vaccine, Lindsey Aloia and Brian Primack
Forum 8: Logistics and the Vaccine, Ashlea Milburn
Forum 9: Medical Decision Making During COVID-19, Shengfan Zhang, Jagpreet Chhatwal, and Shan Liu
Forum 10: COVID Vaccines: How did you get here?, David Dobrzykowski and Sarah Nurre Pinkley
Forum 11: Vaccinating the U of A, Huda Sharaf and Joseph Steinmetz