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.
- Jerry Avorn and Aaron S. Kesselheim, Up is down — pharmaceutical industry caution vs. federal acceleration of COVID-19 vaccine approval, NEJM, Sept 15, 2020.
- Douglas J. Opel, Douglas S. Diekema, and Lainie Friedman Ross, Should we mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for children?, JAMA Pediatrics, Sept 14, 2020.
- Efthimios Parasidis, Big pharma’s safety pledge isn’t enough to build public confidence in COVID-19 vaccine – here’s what will, The Conversation, Sept 14, 2020.
- Govind Persad, Monica E. Peek, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Fairly Prioritizing Groups for Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, JAMA, Sept 10, 2020.
- Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Govind Persad, et al., An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation, Science, Sept 3, 2020.
- Jamie Webb, Lesha Sha, and Holly Fernandez Lynch, No easy answers in allocating unapproved COVID-19 drugs outside clinical trials, AJOB, Aug 25, 2020.
- Steven Joffe, It’s time to start testing potential COVID-19 vaccines on children, Washington Post, Aug 25, 2020.
- Emily Largent, Sabrina Assoumou, and Paul Offit, Global Hangout: Ask the experts: voting & vaccines, NBC News, Aug 21, 2020.
- Anthony Fauci and Michelle Mello (interviewed by Tanzina Vega), Public health officials are increasingly facing threats, The Takeaway Podcast, Aug 11, 2020.
- Courtney B. Sherman et al. (including Peter P. Reese), In-person outreach and telemedicine in liver and intestinal transplant: a survey of national practices, impact of COVID-19 and areas of opportunity, Liver Transplantation, Aug 9, 2020.
- Michelle M. Mello, Jeremy A. Greene, and Joshua M. Sharfstein, Attacks on public health officials during COVID-19, JAMA, Aug 5, 2020.
- Barbara J. Evans and Ellen Wright Clayton, Deadly delay: the FDA’s role in America’s COVID-19 testing debacle, The Yale Law Journal Forum, July 29, 2020.
- Govind C. Persad, A conceptual framework for clearer ethical discussions about Covid-19 Response, The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
- Cynda H. Rushton et al. (including Jeremy Greene), Dramatic interventions in the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Lancet, July 23, 2020.
- Catherine L. Auriemma, Scott D. Halpern, and Jeremy M. Asch, Completion of advance directives and documented care preferences during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, JAMA Network Open, July 20, 2020.
- Jason Karlawish, David C. Grabowski, and Allison K. Hoffman, For residents’ good, nursing homes should consider re-allowing visitors, The Washington Post, July 13, 2020.
- Andrew Peterson, How to decide who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first, CNN, July 10, 2020.
- Holly Fernandez Lynch, Neal W. Dickert, Patricia J. Zettler, Steven Joffe, and Emily A. Largent, Regulatory Flexibility for COVID-19 Research, Journal of Law and Biosciences, July 7, 2020.
- Jennifer Prah Ruger, The injustice of COVID-19: we need a moral constitution for our planet’s health, The Lancet, July, 2020.
- Ryan M. Antiel et al. (including Farr A. Curlin, Govind Persad, and Douglas B. White), Should pediatric patients be prioritized when rationing life-saving treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic?, Pediatrics, July 1, 2020.
- Nicholas G. Evans, Human infection challenge studies: a test for the social value criterion of research ethics, mSphere, July, 2020.
- Michelle M. Mello, Ross D. Silverman, and Saad B. Omer, Ensuring uptake of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, NEJM, June 26, 2020.
- 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.
- Monica Peek and Alicia Fernandez (interviewed by Eric Widera and Alex Smith), Outsized impact of COVID-19 on minority communities, GeriPal Podcast, June 3, 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.
- Michello Mello and David Relman (Interviewed by Michael McFaul), COVID-19 and the importance of immunity, World Class Podcast, 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, Annals of 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.
- Michelle Mello (Interviewed by Pam Karlan and Joe Bankman), Regulating in a pandemic: COVID-19 legal issues, Stanford Legal, April 25, 2020.
- Monica Peek (interviewed by Paul Rand), How Coronavirus is exposing our racial disparities, Big Brains Podcast, Apr 21, 2020.
- Jason Karlawish (interviewed by Deborah Kan), Hospital delirium and dementia in the time of COVID-19, Being Patient, Apr 14, 2020.
- Jennifer Prah Ruger, 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, Annals of Internal Medicine, Apr 7, 2020.
- Monica Peek, Commentary: Food insecurity adds to COVID-19 vulnerability for too many, Chicago Tribune, Apr 6, 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, et al., COVID-19: control measures must be equitable and inclusive, BMJ, Mar 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.
- Lori Frank, Thomas W. Concannon, and Karishma Patel, Health care resource allocation decisionmaking during a pandemic, RAND Research Reports, 2020 (Panel consulted includes Jason Karlawish, Andrew H. Peterson, and Douglas B. White).
Updated: September 21, 2020