‘Vaccines, Ethics, and the Common Good’
With American childhood immunization rates falling to their lowest levels in two generations, leading public health experts, ethicists, legal scholars, and theologians will convene at Boston College to address what organizers call a growing national crisis.
The daylong conference, “Vaccines, Ethics, and the Common Good,” will take place September 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Heights, Boston, and Newton rooms of Corcoran Commons.
The gathering comes amid a sharp resurgence of preventable childhood illnesses across the United States, according to Professor Philip Landrigan, M.D., a pediatrician, director of the University’s Global Observatory on Planetary Health, and a lead organizer of the conference.
Philip J. Landrigan (Gary Wayne Gilbert)
“This event will take stock of historical successes and examine the current situation, including vaccine skepticism,” said Landrigan. “We want to see if we can come up with a prescription for childhood immunization that moves past the current polarized rhetoric and frames vaccination as a medical necessity, a moral duty, and a collective responsibility.”
Federal data show more than 2,700 confirmed measles cases through late August 2026, while Pennsylvania authorities confirmed two measles-associated deaths, one in a newborn. This follows a severe 2025 outbreak that saw 2,289 measles cases and 28,000 cases of pertussis, resulting in 19 combined deaths. Public health officials warn that long-vanquished diseases, including poliomyelitis and congenital rubella syndrome, could return if vaccination trends are not reversed.August 2026, while Pennsylvania authorities confirmed two through late August 2026, while Pennsylvania authorities confirmed two
measles-associated deaths, one in a newborn.
measles-associated deaths, one in a newborn.
“Childhood immunization programs advance the common good,” said Landrigan. “By vaccinating all children in a town, you not only protect the individual child, but you protect the community by creating a healthy environment where kids can go to school, learn, and not have to worry about a deadly disease.”
“Childhood immunization is a moral good,” reads a statement by conference organizers—among them Walsh Professor of Bioethics and Theology Department Chair Andrea Vicini, S.J., and BC School of Social Work Professor Summer Sherburne Hawkins, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good—outlining the event’s objectives. “Children can flourish only when they live in communities where people care for one another and work together to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.”
As rates of vaccination have declined from near-universal acceptance, “people have used the expression ‘victims of our own success,’” said Landrigan. “Because our vaccine programs were so successful, we now have two generations of parents who have no experience with measles or polio.”He added that the public health community may have become complacent and failed to sufficiently educate parents and build demand for vaccines: “We did not do enough to extol vaccines’ benefits.”
Throughout the conference, commissioned papers will examine the historical and philosophical roots of the current vaccine crisis, explore the tension between personal autonomy and public welfare, and outline practical strategies to boost vaccine equity. Special attention will be given to public communication, focusing on messaging techniques capable of bridging political and cultural divides and building demand.
At the conclusion of the event, organizers plan to issue a formal declaration offering an ethically grounded framework for parents, pediatricians, health authorities, and policymakers, said Landrigan. The presentation papers will subsequently be published as a book volume by Wipf & Stock as part of Boston College’s ongoing series on public health ethics.
The conference is co-hosted by BC’s Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good and the Theology Department, in collaboration with BC Law, BCSSW, the Connell School of Nursing, the Clough School of Theology and Ministry, the BC Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Catholic Health Association.
For more information about the conference, visit the event website.