A Journal of the COVID-19 (Plague) Year

Abstract

The essays in this special issue of HEC Forum provide reflections that make explicit the implicit anthropology that our current pandemic has brought but which in the medical ethics literature around COVID-19 has to a great extent ignored. Three of the essays are clearly "journalistic" as a literary genre: one by a hospital chaplain, one by a medical student in her pre-clinical years, and one by a fourth-year medical student who reports her experience as she completed her undergraduate clerkships and applied for positions in graduate medical education. Other essays explore the pandemic from historical, sociological, and economic perspectives, particularly how triage policies have been found to be largely blind to structural healthcare disparities, while simultaneously unable to appropriately address those disparities. Central issues that need to be addressed in triage are not just whether a utilitarian response is the most just response, but what exactly is the greatest good for the greatest number? Together, the essays in this special issue of HEC Forum create a call for a more anthropological approach to understanding health and healthcare. The narrow approach of viewing health as resulting primarily from healthcare will continue to hinder advances and perpetuate disparities. Health outcomes result from a complex interaction of various social, economic, cultural, historical, and political factors. Advancing healthcare requires contextualizing the health of populations amongst these factors. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us keenly aware of how interdependent our health as a society can be.

COVID‐19 and the impact on rural and black church Congregants: Results of the C‐M‐C project

“…However, previous research has shown that people who have vaccine‐specific concerns are more receptive to receiving information that allays their concerns than those with general concerns. Therefore, trusting relationships with healthcare providers and educational dialogue that addresses safety concerns will likely increase vaccine uptake among those who are hesitant (Bunch, 2021 ). Community outreach that includes education and targeted messaging regarding vaccine safety as well as community‐based vaccine administration are necessary to increase vaccine uptake.…”

The COVID-19 pandemic and organ donation and transplantation: ethical issues

“…Also, healthcare professionals have a duty to work in the best interest of their patients. During a pandemic, such as COVID-19, the interest of the population at large outweighs that of the individual patient [ 32 ]. This shift towards a more clearly utilitarian concept of justice has also been observed in the ICU setting with the development of triage protocols [ 33 ].…”

COVID-19 y bioética global

“…El enfoque utilitario de los sistemas de clasificación, por ejemplo, propone categorías abstractas de priorización y es ciego a las disparidades estructurales de la atención médica, sin tener en cuenta el contexto social y la variabilidad de las necesidades y vulnerabilidades del paciente. Las pautas generalmente no incluyen voces de grupos marginados (32). El uso del argumento de las entradas justas articula aún más las tendencias que ya eran visibles antes de la aparición del coronavirus.…”