The unprecedented public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic raises many complex ethical issues – from putting in place public health restrictions on individual liberty, to allocating protective equipment and critical care beds when the need far exceeds supply, to carrying out timely clinical trials during a pandemic to identify effective treatments and vaccines.
Many Greenwall Faculty Scholars and Alumni/ae are on the front lines caring for those affected by the novel coronavirus and working to develop policies to provide practical recommendations on ethical issues. Here we provide links to their work related to the pandemic, which we will continue to update.
- Douglas B. White and Derek C. Angus, A Proposed Lottery System to Allocate Scarce COVID-19 Medications, JAMA, June 24, 2020.
- Ameet Sarpatwari, Anna Kaltenboeck, and Aaron Kesselheim, Missed Opportunities on Emergency Remdesivir Use, JAMA, June 24, 2020.
- Steven Woloshin, Neeraj Patel, and Aaron S. Kesselheim, False Negative Tests for SARS-CoV-2 Infection — Challenges and Implications, NEJM, June 5, 2020.
- Mark A. Hall, Michelle M. Mello, and David M. Studdert, The Legal Authority for States’ Stay-at-Home Orders, NEJM, June 3, 2020.
- Steven Joffe and Holly Fernandez Lynch, The FDA should not rush a covid-19 vaccine, Washington Post, June 2, 2020.
- Emily A. Largent and Holly Fernandez Lynch, Paying Participants in COVID-19 Trials, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, May 29, 2020.
- I. Glenn Cohen, Lawrence O. Gostin, and Daniel J. Weitzner, Digital Smartphone Tracking for COVID-19: Public Health and Civil Liberties in Tension, JAMA, May 27, 2020.
- William D. Miller, Monica E. Peek, and William F. Parker, Scarce resource allocation scores threaten to exacerbate racial disparities in healthcare, CHEST, forthcoming.
- Michelle M. Mello, Govind Persad, and Douglas B. White, Respecting Disability Rights — Toward Improved Crisis Standards of Care, NEJM, May 19, 2020.
- Catherine L. Auriemma, Ashli M. Molinero, Amy J. Houtrow, Govind Persad, Douglas B. White, and Scott D. Halpern, Eliminating Categorical Exclusion Criteria in Crisis Standards of Care Frameworks, The American Journal of Bioethics, May 18, 2020.
- Nicholas G. Evans, The Ethics of Social Distancing, The Philosophers’ Magazine, May 18, 2020.
- Jason Karlawish, A pandemic plan was in place. Trump abandoned it — and science — in the face of Covid-19, STAT, May 17, 2020.
- Jennifer Prah Ruger, The CDC is a national treasure. Why is it being sidelined?, CNN, May 15, 2020.
- Govind Persad and David Wasserman, Diversity and Solidarity in Response to Covid-19, Hastings Bioethics Forum, May 13, 2020.
- Andrew Peterson, Emily A. Largent, and Jason Karlawish, Ethics of reallocating ventilators in the covid-19 pandemic, BMJ, May 12, 2020.
- Michelle M. Mello and C. Jason Wang, Ethics and governance for digital disease surveillance, Science, May 11, 2020.
- Govind Persad and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, What are the ethics behind covid-19 ‘immunity passports’?, Washington Post, May 10, 2020.
- Seema K. Shah et al. (including Holly Fernandez Lynch), Ethics of controlled human infection to study COVID-19, Science, May 7, 2020.
- Scott D. Halpern and Franklin G. Miller, The Urge to Build More Intensive Care Unit Beds and Ventilators: Intuitive but Errant, Ann. Internal Medicine, May 7, 2020.
- Daniel B. Kramer, Bernard Lo, and Neal W. Dickert, CPR in the Covid-19 Era — An Ethical Framework, NEJM, May 6, 2020.
- Govind Persad and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, The Ethics of COVID-19 Immunity-Based Licenses (“Immunity Passports”), JAMA, May 6, 2020.
- Jennifer Prah Ruger, The World Health Organization can be reformed, Financial Times, May 6, 2020.
- Sara Manning Peskin, Allison K. Hoffman, and Jason Karlawish, As coronavirus shut down support systems, the struggles of dementia patients and caregivers only get worse, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 29, 2020.
- Andrew Peterson, Adrian M. Owen, and Charles Weijer, Is it ethical to forcibly withdraw ventilators from nursing home patients for reallocation to Covid-19 patients?, Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, Apr. 27, 2020.
- Govind Persad, Why Disability Law Permits Evidence-Based Triage in a Pandemic, Yale Law Journal Forum, forthcoming.
- Jason Karlawish (interviewed by Deborah Kan), Hospital Delirium and Dementia in the time of COVID-19, Being Patient, Apr. 14, 2020.
- INTERVIEW: Jennifer Prah Ruger On Pandemic Preparation, KSRO, Apr. 13, 2020.
- Jennifer Prah Ruger, How prepping for pandemics can lead to big economic returns, CNN, Apr. 11, 2020.
- Thomas H. Gallagher and Anneliese M. Schleyer, “We Signed Up for This!” — Student and Trainee Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic, NEJM, Apr. 8, 2020.
- Gary E. Weissman et al. (including Scott D. Halpern), Locally Informed Simulation to Predict Hospital Capacity Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Ann. Internal Medicine, Apr. 7, 2020.
- Rebecca L. Haffajee and Michelle M. Mello, Thinking Globally, Acting Locally — The U.S. Response to Covid-19, NEJM, Apr. 2, 2020.
- I. Glenn Cohen, Andrew M. Crespo, and Douglas B. White, Potential Legal Liability for Withdrawing or Withholding Ventilators During COVID-19: Assessing the Risks and Identifying Needed Reforms, JAMA, Apr. 1, 2020.
- I. Glenn Cohen, Andrew M. Crespo, and Douglas B. White, Protect the Doctors and Nurses Who Are Protecting Us, NY Times, Apr. 1, 2020.
- Jason Karlawish, Benefit-Risk Analysis, Webinar: The Science of Social Distancing, Part 2, NAM-APHA COVID-19 Conversation Series, Apr. 1, 2020.
- Holly Fernandez Lynch, Alison Bateman-House, and Arthur L. Caplan, ‘Panic Prescribing’ Untested Coronavirus Treatments: A Danger To Patients Today and Tomorrow, Health Affairs Blog, Mar. 31, 2020.
- Isaac Chotiner, Imagining a Justice-based Health System (interviewing Jennifer Prah Ruger), The New Yorker, Mar. 31, 2020.
- Douglas B. White (audio interview), Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Fairly Rationing ICU Care, JAMA, Mar. 30, 2020.
- Jason Karlawish, Hospitalized adults need their caregivers — they aren’t visitors, STAT, Mar. 29. 2020.
- Douglas B. White and Bernard Lo, A Framework for Rationing Ventilators and Critical Care Beds During the COVID-19 Pandemic, JAMA, Mar. 27, 2020.
- Kristina Garcia, Health equity in a time of global crisis (interviewing Jennifer Prah Ruger), Penn Today, Mar. 25, 2020.
- Douglas B. White and Scott D. Halpern, A Model Hospital Policy for Allocating Scarce Critical Care Resources, Mar. 23, 2020.
- Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Govind Persad, et al., Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19, NEJM, Mar. 23, 2020.
- Zackary D. Berger, Nicholas G. Evans, Alexandra L. Phelan, and Ross D. Silverman. Covid-19: Control Measures Must Be Equitable and Inclusive, BMJ, March 20, 2020.
- Douglas B. White and James Frank (interviewed by Alex Smith and Eric Widera), Rationing Life Saving Treatments in the Setting of COVID Pandemics, GeriPal Podcast, Mar. 19, 2020.
- Ezekiel J. Emanuel, James Phillips, and Govind Persad, How the Coronavirus May Force Doctors to Decide Who Can Live and Who Dies, NY Times, Mar. 12, 2020.
- Steven Joffe, Doctors working while sick is bad enough in ordinary times. During the Covid-19 outbreak it could be catastrophic, STAT, Mar. 9 2020.
- Joshua M. Sharfstein, Scott J. Becker, and Michelle M. Mello, Diagnostic Testing for the Novel Coronavirus, JAMA, Mar. 9. 2020.
Updated: July 1, 2020