The University of Illinois Springfield Innovation Hub, UIS Center for State Policy and Leadership and the Community Health Roundtable will host a free public webinar titled “COVID-19 Vaccine: The Journey to Immunity” at Noon Friday, Jan. 15 via Zoom.

Public health and health care panelists will join together to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine and answer important questions around the safety and efficacy of each vaccine, allocation and distribution. Additionally, panelists will discuss COVID-19’s impact on specific populations and how the impact has determined vaccine prioritization, along with giving some understanding of when herd immunity (the point at which enough people are immune to the virus) will be reached.

Panelists include Dr. Vidya Sundareshan, interim chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the SIU School of Medicine; Dr. Wesley Robinson-McNeese, SIU Systems executive director for diversity initiatives; Brian Churchill, EMS coordinator and emergency management facilitator at HSHS St. John’s Hospital; and Heidi Clark, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Illinois Department of Public Health. The discussion will be moderated by Molly Lamb, executive director of the UIS Center of State Policy and Leadership.

In order to attend the event, please register online at go.uis.edu/CHRWebinarJan152021. A Zoom link will be emailed to those who register.

For more information, contact Bruce Sommer at 217-899-3186 or bsomm2@uis.edu. Past UIS webinars can be found online at go.uis.edu/Webinars.