CLEVELAND, Ohio – Distrust in health care, dealing with Ohio’s worst-ever COVID-19 outbreak, misinformation on social media and the power of storytelling were among the topics that are discussed during a symposium at Case Western Reserve University on Thursday.
The Inamori Ethics Prize Symposium featured actor and lawyer LeVar Burton, former Director of the Ohio Department of Health Dr. Amy Acton, and Macalester College President and bioethicist Suzanne Rivera discuss the day’s topic, “Addressing Ethical Imperatives in Community, Local and Global Life.”
Acton took the audience back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when he was director of the Ohio Department of Health. It was then that he saw “awesome anger.” Acton resigned as health director in June 2020 as he criticized the COVID regulations.
Acton recalled: “The hatred was real. But he added: “The love was greater than the hate.”
After the class, Acton said he will answer the question of whether he will run for governor of Ohio in 2026 after the November election. Acton said in August that he still wants to be a candidate.
Acton said he is currently working on the passage of Proposition 1, which would create the Citizens’ Commission, a 15-member non-political body responsible for approving state and congressional banning plans. .
“I’m thinking a lot about public service,” Acton said. “After (the election) I’ll answer everyone’s questions.”
Gov. Mike DeWine hired Acton to lead the Ohio Department of Health in 2019, but he suddenly came out a year later when he and DeWine held daily coronavirus briefings.
Acton has not yet run for office.
Most people need to get out of their comfort zone and connect with people who think differently than they do, said Burton, who is remembered from “Reading Rainbow,” “Roots” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Storytelling helps people find commonalities and truly listen to each other, Burton said.
“Reading is an empathy machine,” Burton said. “We are made to work together. We work better as a species when we collaborate. ”
Along with teaching reading in schools, students need to learn to tell false information from good information online, Burton said.
“We need to equip kids with cognitive abilities,” Burton said.
Macalester College President Suzanne Rivera noted that social inequities in health care can be seen in maternal and infant mortality, gun violence and climate change — all things that affect the poor and disadvantaged. an unlimited way.
Healthcare leaders need to lead with integrity, honesty and transparency to earn their patients’ trust, Rivera said.
“We need to have the courage to confront what is still unfair in this country,” said Rivera, who was previously the vice president for research and technology administration at CWRU.
Rivera’s training in bioethics equipped her to deal with the challenges currently facing higher education, as colleges and universities dealt with student protests last year.
The solution is to find ways to cooperate and interact with those we disagree with, Rivera said.
“How can we make a big tent?” Rivera asked.
The event took place in the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel at CWRU. The discussion was moderated by Shannon French, Inamori professor of ethics and director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at CWRU.
The event was intended to include a ceremony presenting the 2024 Inamori Ethics Award to infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. However, Fauci was unable to attend because he is still recovering from West Nile virus. Burton, who received the award in 2019, accepted the award on Fauci’s behalf.
An audience of about 250 cheered on video highlights of Fauci’s life and work, including his time as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, and chief medical adviser to the presidency from 2021 to 2022.
Julie Washington covers health care for cleveland.com. Read on previous stories in this link.
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