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The Truth About Vaccines

Sat 7 Sep 2019

David Isaacs

Rumpus Room

Conversation / Families

7121

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

We may fear terrorist attacks, but in truth humans have always had far more to fear from infections. Less than 100 years ago, losing a child to an infection like diphtheria or polio was a dreaded but almost inevitable sorrow. Yet with the eradication in the first world of some of humanity’s deadliest foes, complacency has set in. We forget the power of these diseases at our peril. David Isaacs discusses the importance of vaccines with public health expert Kathomi Gatwiri.

#Artist

David Isaacs

Professor David Isaacs is a consultant paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, and Clinical Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney. He has been a member of every Australian national immunisation advisory committee for the last 25 years. He is passionate about bioethics, and has published and taught extensively on ethical aspects of immunisation. He is one of several doctors who have exposed what they say is a culture of violence, abuse, self‐harm and cover-up on Nauru, in defiance of laws that could land them in prison.

#Moderator

Kathomi Gatwiri

Dr. Kathomi Gatwiri is the author of “African Womanhood and Incontinent Bodies” and an award winning community educator, activist and lecturer from Kenya, currently residing in Australia. Dr. Gatwiri is a social worker and psychotherapist who holds a First Class Honours in Social Work from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and a Master’s in Counselling and Psychotherapy from the Cairnmillar Institute in Melbourne.She has completed a PhD with an interdisciplinary thesis entitled 'African womanhood, Health, Sexuality & Incontinent Bodies. In 2017, Gatwiri was named Young Kenyan of the Year by the Kenya Association of South Australia for her achievements and service in the African community in Australia. She is a regular contributor in SBS, and in the conversation on topics of race, feminism and immigration.