Presented by Professor Michael Burgess, University of British Columbia, Canada

A public deliberation in Ontario, Canada, attempted to develop policy advice from an informed and deliberative mini public on the issue of mandatory childhood vaccination policy. The outcomes considered accounts from groups and participants who expressed hesitation about the need and safety of vaccines. Nonetheless, the discrediting of scientific claims behind vaccine hesitancy may distract deliberation participants from important ethical dimensions that must be considered for democratic governance of childhood vaccines.

Michael Burgess is Professor and Research Chair at the W Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, School of Population and Public Health, with an appointment in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. He works from the Okanagan campus of UBC in Kelowna, helping develop graduate learning and research collaborations between campuses. Over the last decade Professor Burgess has developed and implemented a model for deliberative public engagement to inform health and biotechnology policy, in collaboration with Kieran O'Doherty.

All welcome