Jul 30, 2021

FOX31 DENVER: Many people have asked: Is it legal for employers or the government to require the shots? Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH says, “The answer to your question, are vaccination mandates legal, is yes. They are clearly legal under U.S. law and under the U.S. Constitution, and that has been litigated repeatedly and essentially always comes up with the same answer.” He said things have been that way since the early 1900s, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld smallpox vaccine mandates.

Jun 30, 2021

Read our 6-Year Report, highlighting the Center's contributions to the campus and our community.

Jul 2, 2021

Over the last year, CHWE partnered with CBH on a webinar series focused on ethics and occupational health. Through the Work & Play in a Pandemic Series, we have educated over 1,000 individuals on a variety of meaningful topics directed to a wide range of audiences including vulnerable worker populations; collegiate athletes; COVID-response workers facing moral distress; vaccine guidance for employers; and the future of OSH in light of the November 2020 election.

Jun 26, 2021

WINNER OF 2020 AJPA EDUCATION JOURNALISM AWARD: Center Director Matthew Wynia encourages medical schools to incorporate the Holocaust into bioethics training. "There is no topic you can imagine in bioethics today that has not been influenced by the actions of doctors, nurses and other health scientists during the Holocaust." This interview, Hard Lessons, by Andrea Jacobs from the Intermountain Jewish News, won the 2020 award for best education journalism from the American Jewish Press Association.

Jun 26, 2021

BOULDER DAILY CAMERA: Something remarkable has been happening in a pocket of rural Southwestern Colorado. Bruce Evans is chief of the Upper Pine Fire Protection District in the city of Bayfield, which is 18 miles east of Durango in La Plata County. Both his 33-person crew and the approximately 12,000 people they serve in the Four Corners region look to their chief — who has 37 years of experience in emergency services —as a trusted leader. Which is why 200 people came when the district hosted what was reportedly one of the first COVID-19 vaccine clinics at a firehouse in the state earlier this year.

Jun 10, 2021

DENVER GAZETTE: Matthew Wynia and State Rep. Andres Pico share their viewpoints. Wynia concludes, Maybe the idea of a sweepstakes just doesn’t appeal to you. Fair enough, but it does appeal to some who’ve been on the fence. Achieving herd immunity is hard, and one approach won’t work for everyone. But herd immunity is our ticket out of this pandemic, just like it was for diphtheria, polio and smallpox — each of which was once a worldwide scourge. We need to work all angles to get people vaccinated.

Jun 14, 2021

KUNC: Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, explains, “If we want to maintain herd immunity over time, we're going to have a mandate at some point,” he said. “Or if you don't want a mandate, you try and incentivize people to internalize that positive external benefit of herd immunity.” While cash incentives might be a coercive carrot, Wynia said, a workplace mandate is a very coercive stick.

May 26, 2021

KUNC COLORADO: The state has announced it will hold five $1 million drawings for Coloradans who've been vaccinated against COVID-19. The idea is to encourage more people to get the shots, but who are these dollar incentives really targeting? Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, believes, "it's people who do not have strong objections to vaccines-they just never got around to doing it."

May 25, 2021

ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS: Warren Binford, JD, Ed.M, is the W.H. Lea Endowed Chair for Justice in Pediatric Law, Ethics and Policy. She recently united with 17 Latinx illustrators to create a book titled “Hear My Voice/Escucha Mi Voz.”

May 24, 2021

BBC NEWS: "Children arriving to the United States are being needlessly traumatized due to the long-standing failure of the US to build a modern border management system that recognizes 21st Century migration trends," said Warren Binford, JD, Ed.M.

May 20, 2021

Warren Binford, JD, Ed.M., was elected as a fellow to the American Bar Foundation. "The Fellows is a global honorary society of attorneys, judges, law faculty, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities." Only one percent of attorneys receive this distinction.

Professor Binford also just completed chairing the International Law Association's first study group on children's rights in the organization's 148-year history. The group, including experts from the Hague, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and professors from half a dozen universities, produced a detailed 121 page report on enforcing the rights of children in migration.

May 14, 2021

Tess Jones, PhD was chosen to receive the 2021 Foundations of Doctoring Curriculum Faculty Choice Award. The award is given each year to a faculty member who contributes at multiple points throughout the Foundations of Doctoring Curriculum. Congratulations Dr. Jones, as your faculty peers recognized, "your willingness to help at a moment's notice, your enthusiasm for teaching, and your ability to advocate for your learners."

May 4, 2021

CNN INTERNATIONAL: Children's rights scholar Warren Binford is interviewed by Rosemary Church on CNN International, talking about her new book, Hear My Voice / Eschucha Mi Voz, which amplifies the voices of the children coming to the US and helps tell their stories so that we can ensure that we do a much better job going forward of getting and keeping children with their families.

Apr 22, 2021

NEW YORK TIMES: Dr. Matthew Wynia, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, said that health officials faced a frightening trade-off in choosing between a pause and warning: They would know only hypothetically the lives a pause may have cost, but they would know exactly who may have suffered or died from clots.

Apr 16, 2021

DELMARVA PUBLIC MEDIA: Warren Binford has compiled a book entitled, "Hear My Voice: The Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States" for Project Amplify. Amidst colorful drawings Binford laces in what she and others have heard from the children.

Apr 14, 2021

JEFFERSON PUBLIC RADIO: In this interview with Warren Binford, JD, M.Ed. and Michael Garcia Bochenek of Human Rights Watch, "We hear plenty from the politicians about the proper management of the U.S. border with Mexico. Children usually end up right in the middle of the debates, especially lately, when so many have arrived at the border without adults. Why do they come?" A new book, compiled by Binford, is uniquely equipped to answer that question; Hear My Voice/Escucha mi voz: The Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States.

May 1, 2021

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Epidemiological studies, and the systematic reviews that synthesize them, report outcomes as “risks.” For example, the risk of dying from a harmful exposure, or the risk of getting a second heart attack after receiving drug treatment. Risks of harmful exposures, such as air pollution, can seem very small compared to the risks of the beneficial effect from a drug. But, these risks are often considered at the level of the individual person. In this article, Lisa Bero, PhD and co-authors explain why population level risk should be reported when assessing the effects of exposures or interventions. To protect and improve the health of the public, it is critical to understand that small risks applied across a large population can have a profound effect.

Apr 5, 2021

THE DURANGO HERALD: "One concern about potentially implementing the vaccine passports is ensuring they are equitable for all people," said Center Director, Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH. Despite experiencing higher rates of infection and death from the coronavirus, people of color have been vaccinated against the coronavirus at a lower rate than white people. The system would also have to be equitable for people without access to advanced technology.

Apr 2, 2021

5280 MAGAZINE: "If we make good decisions that clearly prioritize equity, we could come out of this with greater levels of trust in the health care system among racial and ethnic minority populations that haven’t always trusted the health care system," explained CBH Director Matthew Wynia. "Watching leaders in health care really struggle with how to do this right, that can be a cohesion-building experience."

Apr 2, 2021

TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO: International children’s advocate and CBH faculty Warren Binford, JD, PhD, is also co-founder of Project Amplify, a national campaign aimed at establishing legal protections for children in government care. She compiled legally-recorded testimonies and documents from migrant children in federal custody to create “Hear My Voice/Escucha mi voz,” a bilingual illustrated book detailing the experiences of these children.