Westminster Town Hall Forum

The first Forum of our “Ethics Still Matter” spring season features Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, reflecting on an early Forum topic, “Critical Issues in Medical Ethics,” addressed by the University of Minnesota’s Dr. John Najarian in 1982. Throughout time, ethical questions and norms have been grounded in the obligation to care for our neighbors. Yet public health system norms are being dismantled and attacked at high levels, surfacing the question, “Do our neighbors matter?” Dr. Osterholm is a renowned expert on the epidemiology of infectious disease, serving as the Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He also is co-founder of the Vaccine Integrity Project and author of the new book, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics. The Moderator for today’s Forum will be Jan Malcolm. Jan Malcolm served as the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of