On the 9th of June 2020, George Perry Floyd Jr. was laid to rest in Pearland, Texas. What ensued in the aftermath of his killing was a cathartic revolt to a pre-existent global pandemic. It was a pandemic that the world preferred to believe did not exist, but pervaded the inner fabric of our educational, […]
Month: June 2020
The heroic NHS immigrants: an idea that has run its course? by Saurabh Jain
In my view, Britain has always had a thorny relationship with race and immigration, and this is magnified in the NHS. The NHS has relied on migrant labour using colonial ties to fill its ranks such as nurses from the Windrush generation or doctors from the Indian subcontinent. 43% of senior NHS doctors and 47% of junior doctors are from Black, […]
Adapting Leadership and Staying Empowered – the Three Critical T’s by Nicci Statham
So here we are just past the first peak of a virus outbreak. A BIG shock for our NHS leaders and the world. Part of me wonders if this is a big wake up call to the reality that things can change at any time, in any way. We really aren’t in control of anything, […]
Can healthcare leaders provide emotional containment for their staff as COVID-19 levels fall? by Catherine Sandler
As an executive coach working with business and public sector leaders during the 2008-11 recession, I was struck by how some groups of employees coped much better than others during difficult times. Certain organisations seemed able to maintain productivity, motivation and trust during the crisis while others in the same sector were characterised by high […]
Triaging ethical issues during a pandemic: a rough guide
By David Shaw Covid-19 raises dozens of fascinating ethical issues, but you might not know it from looking at the narrow focus of many ethics papers published since the pandemic began. Most of these papers have focused on the issue of allocating scare resources in intensive care units, because of the anticipated pressure on these […]
How should the risks of infecting research participants with SARS-CoV-2 be assessed?
By Susan Bull, Euzebiusz Jamrozik, Ariella Binik, Michael Parker Vaccine development processes typically take ten to twenty years. The exceptional pace of COVID-19 vaccine research has resulted in early human trials being commenced with vaccine candidates. Calls have been made to conduct controlled human infection studies (CHIs), also known as challenge studies, with SARS-CoV-2 to […]
Ethical oversight during COVID-19: rewriting the norms of research ethics review?
By Anna Chiumento and Lucy Frith One consequence of physical distancing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rapid suspension or adaptation of ongoing research activity. This presents an opportunity for the research ethics community and researchers to promote ethical oversight that integrates the situated and informed judgement of researchers, rebalancing away from […]
Pandemic priority decisions and triage, from good to ugly
By Hans Flaatten, Michael Beil, and Susannah Leaver. The present COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled discussions regarding the prospects and limitations of treatment in critically ill patients. This commentary describes a framework for understanding pandemic triage ranging from “business as usual” (“good”) to the extreme depletion of all resources (“ugly”). This is illustrated with different stages […]
COVID, Systemic Racism Protests, Anti-Lockdown Protests: Making Sense Of It All
By Austin Lam. A recent article highlighted an uncomfortable yet unassailable issue: “the way the public health narrative around coronavirus has reversed itself overnight seems an awful lot like … politicizing science.” Alternatively, another article frames this political element as itself the impetus to justify protests against systemic racism in the context of racism as […]
Stigma at the time of an outbreak
The origin of the word stigma stems from the late 16th century. The word comes via Latin (stigmat) from Greek (stizein) translating to a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.1 Quoting history’s most popular space franchise’s legendary character, Yoda – ‘Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate […]