Vaccines and the social amplification of risk.

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named "Vaccine Hesitancy" one of the top 10 threats to global health. Shortly afterward, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the world's predominant health concern. COVID-19 vaccines of several types have been developed, tested, and partially deployed with remarkable speed; vaccines are now the primary control measure and hope for a return to normalcy.

Social Perception of Systemic Risks.

The article distinguishes between two types of risks: conventional and systemic risks. Conventional risks can be contained in space and time, follow linear cause-effect relationships and can be addressed with effective and pointed interventions into the cause-effect chain. Systemic risks, however, are characterized by high complexity, transboundary effects, stochastic relationships, nonlinear cause-effect patterns with tipping points, and are often associated with less public attention than they require.

Through a Glass Darkly: How Natural Science and Technical Communities Looked at Social Science Advances in Understanding Risk.

This article is one piece in a series of articles that reflect on advances in ideas about risk made by social science over the past 40 years and more. It differs from the other articles: its focus is not on specific advances themselves, but rather on how those advances were received and were encouraged or discouraged by the natural science and technical members of the risk community. Thus, the principal goal of this article is to provide some context for the other articlers in this series.

Two Types of Vigilance Are Essential to Effective Hazard Management: Maintaining Both Together Is Difficult.

Flexibility and adaptability are key capabilities for coping with persistent and pervasive uncertainties. The systematic organization of these capabilities is often called "adaptive management"; it is key to effective hazard management and important in risk governance. Vigilance is a requirement for effective adaptation.