By Barbara Loe Fisher
Fear
is a primal biological response to a perceived threat to our survival.
Fear triggers momentary paralysis and then a fight or flight reaction
before the brain can rationally analyze and calibrate our response to a
perceived threat.
Right
now, people around the world are living in fear of being infected or
infecting someone else with a new coronavirus that can kill those most
vulnerable without warning. Along with confusion and uncertainty, which
prolongs fear, many of us are traumatized by the authoritarian measures
governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that began
in China in late 2019.
The
"new normal" is disorienting, like we have taken a hit to the gut and
then to the head that we didn't see coming. Maybe that is why so many
Americans, who value freedom
of speech, religion, assembly, privacy and the right to work, have
given those constitutional rights up, without stopping to think through
the ramifications of the larger precedent being set.
Read this referenced commentary, watch a video and make a comment here.
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2020 marks the 38th year of the founding of our non-profit educational charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). This
year, NVIC is sponsoring the Fifth International Public Conference on
Vaccination Oct. 16-18, 2020 with the theme of "Protecting Health and
Autonomy in the 21st Century."
Due
to ongoing COVID-19 social distancing regulations that may also involve
travel restrictions this fall, NVIC's conference will be held online so
more people in the U.S. and around the world can participate.
NVIC's
conference will be professionally produced and include formal
presentations and panel discussions featuring more than 40 distinguished
speakers from the U.S. and other countries, as well as live chats where
attendees can comment and connect with each other.
The
goal is to empower and inspire attendees with high quality information
and informed perspective about vaccine science, policy, law and ethics
within the context of challenges posed by suppression of scientific
inquiry and rational criticism of public health policies that affect
freedom of thought and speech and other civil liberties.
Learn more about NVIC's October 2020 conference here.
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