Digital Contact Tracing for Pandemic Response

Digital Contact Tracing for Pandemic Response
Author: Jeffrey P. Kahn
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2020-05-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1421440628
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As nations race to hone contact-tracing efforts, the world's experts consider strategies for maximum transparency and impact. As public health professionals around the world work tirelessly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that traditional methods of contact tracing need to be augmented in order to help address a public health crisis of unprecedented scope. Innovators worldwide are racing to develop and implement novel public-facing technology solutions, including digital contact tracing technology. These technological products may aid public health surveillance and containment strategies for this pandemic and become part of the larger toolbox for future infectious outbreak prevention and control. As technology evolves in an effort to meet our current moment, Johns Hopkins Project on Ethics and Governance of Digital Contact Tracing Technologies—a rapid research and expert consensus group effort led by Dr. Jeffrey P. Kahn of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in collaboration with the university's Center for Health Security—carried out an in-depth analysis of the technology and the issues it raises. Drawing on this analysis, they produced a report that includes detailed recommendations for technology companies, policymakers, institutions, employers, and the public. The project brings together perspectives from bioethics, health security, public health, technology development, engineering, public policy, and law to wrestle with the complex interactions of the many facets of the technology and its applications. This team of experts from Johns Hopkins University and other world-renowned institutions has crafted clear and detailed guidelines to help manage the creation, implementation, and application of digital contact tracing. Digital Contact Tracing for Pandemic Response is the essential resource for this fast-moving crisis. Contributors: Joseph Ali, JD; Anne Barnhill, PhD; Anita Cicero, JD; Katelyn Esmonde, PhD; Amelia Hood, MA; Brian Hutler, Phd, JD; Jeffrey P. Kahn, PhD, MPH; Alan Regenberg, MBE; Crystal Watson, DrPH, MPH; Matthew Watson; Robert Califf, MD, MACC; Ruth Faden, PhD, MPH; Divya Hosangadi, MSPH; Nancy Kass, ScD; Alain Labrique, PhD, MHS, MS; Deven McGraw, JD, MPH, LLM; Michelle Mello, JD, PhD; Michael Parker, BEd (Hons), MA, PhD; Stephen Ruckman, JD, MSc, MAR; Lainie Rutkow, JD, MPH, PhD; Josh Sharfstein, MD; Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA; Eric Toner, MD; Mar Trotochaud, MSPH; Effy Vayena, PhD; Tal Zarsky, JSD, LLM, LLB

Moral Uncertainty

Moral Uncertainty
Author: William MacAskill
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2020
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198722273
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About the bookToby Ord try to fill this gap. They argue that there are distinctive norms that govern how one ought to make decisions and defend an information-sensitive account of how to make such decisions. They do so by developing an analogy between moral uncertainty and social choice, noting that different moral views provide different amounts of information regarding our reasons for action, and arguing that the correct account of decision-making under moral uncertainty must be sensitive to that. Moral Uncertainty also tackles the problem of how to make intertheoretic comparisons, and addresses the implications of their view for metaethics and practical ethics. Very often we are uncertain about what we ought, morally, to do. We do not know how to weigh the interests of animals against humans, how strong our duties are to improve the lives of distant strangers, or how to think about the ethics of bringing new people into existence. But we still need to act. So how should we make decisions in the face of such uncertainty? Though economists and philosophers have extensively studied the issue of decision-making in the face of uncertainty about matters of fact, the question of decision-making given fundamental moral uncertainty has been neglected. In Moral Uncertainty, philosophers William MacAskill, Krister Bykvist, and Toby Ord try to fill this gap. They argue that there are distinctive norms that govern how one ought to make decisions and defend an information-sensitive account of how to make such decisions. They do so by developing an analogy between moral uncertainty and social choice, noting that different moral views provide different amounts of information regarding our reasons for action, and arguing that the correct account of decision-making under moral uncertainty must be sensitive to that. Moral Uncertainty also tackles the problem of how to make intertheoretic comparisons, and addresses the implications of their view for metaethics and practical ethics.

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2007-07-08
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309107695
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In recent public workshops and working group meetings, the Forum on Microbial Threats of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has examined a variety of infectious disease outbreaks with pandemic potential, including those caused by influenza (IOM, 2005) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (IOM, 2004). Particular attention has been paid to the potential pandemic threat posed by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which is now endemic in many Southeast Asian bird populations. Since 2003, the H5N1 subtype of avian influenza has caused 185 confirmed human deaths in 11 countries, including some cases of viral transmission from human to human (WHO, 2007). But as worrisome as these developments are, at least they are caused by known pathogens. The next pandemic could well be caused by the emergence of a microbe that is still unknown, much as happened in the 1980s with the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and in 2003 with the appearance of the SARS coronavirus. Previous Forum meetings on pandemic disease have discussed the scientific and logistical challenges associated with pandemic disease recognition, identification, and response. Participants in these earlier meetings also recognized the difficulty of implementing disease control strategies effectively. Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease: Workshop Summary as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop.

Ethical Failures of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Ethical Failures of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Author: Péter Marton
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2022-12-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3031091949
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This book draws attention to the non-biological—political, economic, societal and cultural—variables shaping both the emergence and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to it, with a particular focus on political decisionmakers’ role in the domestic and international politics surrounding the process of the pandemic. The book identifies the strategic and underlying ethical failures of decision making, using a process-tracing approach to reconstruct considerations, decisions and actions by key leaders—interested in thus weaving a global narrative of the response. The author highlights key speech acts, and interprets the causal implications embedded in a chronological and contextualised appraisal of events, statements and public health measures. The book further discusses the normative ethics of pandemic response, and presents lessons drawn from the present experience. It also offers a normative analysis taking into consideration pre-pandemic guidelines for response, including in the literature of public health ethics and pandemic preparedness plans.

Moral Resilience

Moral Resilience
Author: Cynda Hylton Rushton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190619295
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Suffering is an unavoidable reality in health care. Not only are patients and families suffering but also the clinicians who care for them. Commonly the suffering experienced by clinicians is moral in nature, in part a reflection of the increasing complexity of health care, their roles within it, and the expanding range of available interventions. Moral suffering is the anguish that occurs when the burdens of treatment appear to outweigh the benefits; scarce human and material resources must be allocated; informed consent is incomplete or inadequate; or there are disagreements about goals of treatment among patients, families or clinicians. Each is a source of moral adversity that challenges clinicians' integrity: the inner harmony that arises when their essential values and commitments are aligned with their choices and actions. If moral suffering is unrelieved it can lead to disengagement, burnout, and undermine the quality of clinical care. The most studied response to moral adversity is moral distress. The sources and sequelae of moral distress, one type of moral suffering, have been documented among clinicians across specialties. It is vital to shift the focus to solutions and to expanded individual and system strategies that mitigate the detrimental effects of moral suffering. Moral resilience, the capacity of an individual to restore or sustain integrity in response to moral adversity, offers a path forward. It encompasses capacities aimed at developing self-regulation and self-awareness, buoyancy, moral efficacy, self-stewardship and ultimately personal and relational integrity. Clinicians and healthcare organizations must work together to transform moral suffering by cultivating the individual capacities for moral resilience and designing a new architecture to support ethical practice. Used worldwide for scalable and sustainable change, the Conscious Full Spectrum approach, offers a method to solve problems to support integrity, shift patterns that undermine moral resilience and ethical practice, and source the inner potential of clinicians and leaders to produce meaningful and sustainable results that benefit all.

The Ethics of Pandemics

The Ethics of Pandemics
Author: Meredith Celene Schwartz
Publisher: Broadview Press
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2020-07-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1460407202
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A portion of the revenue from this book’s sales will be donated to Doctors Without Borders to assist in the fight against COVID-19. The rapid spread of COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on modern health-care systems and has given rise to a number of complex ethical issues. This collection of readings and case studies offers an overview of some of the most pressing of these issues, such as the allocation of ventilators and other scarce resources, the curtailing of standard privacy measures for the sake of public health, and the potential obligations of health-care professionals to continue operating in dangerous work environments.

Ethics in Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being

Ethics in Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being
Author: Sarah Banks
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2018-08-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351605348
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Participatory research is well-established as an approach involving people with a direct interest in, or experience of, the issue being studied in carrying out research. However, it raises unique and challenging ethical issues. Traditional concerns with respect for the rights to confidentiality, consent, privacy and protection of ‘research informants’ do not translate easily into participatory research. Boundaries between researchers and those researched are often blurred; research trajectories may be emergent and unpredictable; and major ethical issues revolve around partnership, power, equality and respect for diverse knowledges. The book introduces the key ethical issues in participatory research, drawing on ethical theory and relevant literature before presenting seven substantive chapters, each on a different theme, such as power, ownership, confidentiality and boundaries. The chapters feature an introductory overview of the topic with reference to the literature, followed by four real-life case examples written by participatory researchers and short commentaries on each case. Drawn from around the world (from Denmark to Tanzania), the cases illustrate a range of ethical issues, outlining how they were handled and the reflections and feelings of the contributors. Focusing on developing ethical awareness, confidence and courage to act in ethically challenging situations in everyday research practice, this book is an invaluable resource for all participatory researchers.

Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response

Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response
Author: World Health Organization
Publisher: World Health Organization
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2009
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9241547685
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This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

Crisis Standards of Care

Crisis Standards of Care
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2013-10-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309285526
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Disasters and public health emergencies can stress health care systems to the breaking point and disrupt delivery of vital medical services. During such crises, hospitals and long-term care facilities may be without power; trained staff, ambulances, medical supplies and beds could be in short supply; and alternate care facilities may need to be used. Planning for these situations is necessary to provide the best possible health care during a crisis and, if needed, equitably allocate scarce resources. Crisis Standards of Care: A Toolkit for Indicators and Triggers examines indicators and triggers that guide the implementation of crisis standards of care and provides a discussion toolkit to help stakeholders establish indicators and triggers for their own communities. Together, indicators and triggers help guide operational decision making about providing care during public health and medical emergencies and disasters. Indicators and triggers represent the information and actions taken at specific thresholds that guide incident recognition, response, and recovery. This report discusses indicators and triggers for both a slow onset scenario, such as pandemic influenza, and a no-notice scenario, such as an earthquake. Crisis Standards of Care features discussion toolkits customized to help various stakeholders develop indicators and triggers for their own organizations, agencies, and jurisdictions. The toolkit contains scenarios, key questions, and examples of indicators, triggers, and tactics to help promote discussion. In addition to common elements designed to facilitate integrated planning, the toolkit contains chapters specifically customized for emergency management, public health, emergency medical services, hospital and acute care, and out-of-hospital care.

Vulnerable

Vulnerable
Author: Colleen M. Flood
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Total Pages: 850
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 077663643X
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The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19, has infected people in 212 countries so far and on every continent except Antarctica. Vast changes to our home lives, social interactions, government functioning and relations between countries have swept the world in a few months and are difficult to hold in one’s mind at one time. That is why a collaborative effort such as this edited, multidisciplinary collection is needed. This book confronts the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic and its consequences, along with the legal, ethical and policy responses. These include vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices harm us all. Hopefully, COVID-19 will forces us to deeply reflect on how we govern and our policy priorities; to focus preparedness, precaution, and recovery to include all, not just some. Published in English with some chapters in French.