By Amali U Lokugamage Elizabeth(Liz) Rix, Tania Fleming, Tanvi Khetan, Alice Meredith, and Carolyn Ruth Hastie. The global pandemic and the BlackLivesMatter movement have highlighted systemic racism as a driver of health inequities for ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. So how should we upend this pervasive discrimination and critically yet constructively examine this from […]
Category: Pandemic
Balancing speed and equity in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines
By Maxwell J. Smith COVID-19 vaccines are in limited supply, and so it’s crucial that their harm-reducing powers are deployed strategically. This likely requires two things: (1) prioritizing vaccines to those at greatest risk of mortality, hospitalization, transmission, and/or infection; and (2) administering vaccinations as rapidly as possible. Yet, it is sometimes not possible to […]
The review of the global first SARS COV 2 Human Infection Challenge studies
By the UK ad hoc specialist Research Ethics Committee Expert and lay members of UK RECs recognised to review Clinical Trials of Investigational Medicinal Products (CTIMPs) or Phase 1 studies in healthy volunteers, particularly those with experience of vaccine studies, were invited to join an ad hoc Research Ethics Committee to review SARS COV 2 […]
The Values of Life, Liberty, and the Law: A Tale of Two (As)Sumptions
By John Coggon Lord Sumption, a retired Justice of the UK Supreme Court, has been a prominent contributor to debates on government pandemic responses. Representing an uncompromising libertarianism, he is a consistent, highly critical commentator on restrictions regulations and associated official guidance. However, there are some perplexing tensions between his practical and ethical assumptions when […]
What’s yours is ours: intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines
By Nancy S. Jecker. The extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic warrant waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is currently considering such a move, which over 100 Nobel laureates and 75 former heads of state have backed, calling it a “vital and necessary step” that would “expand global manufacturing […]
Persuading anti-vaxxers: Stop talking about facts
By Michelle Bach. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health. The WHO attributes vaccine hesitancy to factors such as a lack of confidence, complacency, and convenience. In the UK, hesitancy has been associated with certain demographic factors such as race, age, and […]
“I am used to my happy life, not this” – why mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for care home staff is an essential humanitarian and ethical intervention
By Ayesha Ahmad. When traditional healers heal, they empathise with the pain being endured. The traditional healer is distinguished by their strength and ability to channel the suffering through, and beyond, them. What this shows is that there is a distinction between the person who is a healer and the person who is being healed. […]
Do doctors engaging in advocacy speak for themselves or their profession?
By Elizabeth Lanphier In the United States, where I live and work, it is common for physicians to speak out on a variety of topics both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, physicians advocate against gun violence as a matter of public health. Pediatricians become #tweetiatrician on social media to raise awareness about […]
The value of COVID challenge trials for diverse populations
By Nir Eyal and Tobias Gerhard Perhaps the strongest argument against COVID challenge trials posits that they must choose between the Scylla of insufficient safety for volunteers and the Charybdis of insufficient social value. In particular, challenge trials that exclude old or unhealthy participants for their own safety may involve surprisingly low risk, but they […]
The doctor can “see” you now – the ethical considerations of patient rights and safeguards in online mental health act assessments during Covid-19
By Lisa Schölin and Arun Chopra. It is fair to say that when the pandemic hit we were not entirely prepared to move our social lives, work, and healthcare to online platforms. Yet, we had to. But in which services, and more specifically in what situations, can remote contact sufficiently, legally, and safely be used […]