Pandemic public health policy: with great power comes great responsibility

Jamrozik, Euzebiusz; Heriot, G

doi:10.1111/imj.15038

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…“We argue that our public health agencies and governments must do better in transparently communicating the risks of COVID-19, the justifications for restrictive interventions, and the long-term all-things-considered goals of public health policy” (Jamrozik and Heriot 2020 , 1169).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics and Health Security in the Australian COVID-19 Context: A Critical Interpretive Literature Review

Fehross,

Pahlman,

Silva

2023

Bioethical Inquiry

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Background The concept of “health security” is often used to motivate public health responses, yet the ethical values that underpin this concept remain largely unexamined. The recent Australian responses to COVID-19 serve as an important case study by which we can analyse the pre-existing literature to see what ethical values shaped, and continue to shape, Australia’s response. Methods We conducted a critical interpretive literature review of academic and grey literatures within key databases, resulting in 2,220 sources. After screening for duplicates and relevance, we analysed ninety-six sources. Results First, risk and uncertainty are a leading focus, with a heavy concentration on risks to life and health. Second, free movement, safety, and security were recurringly emphasized, albeit narrowly focused upon the safety of the population. Third, legitimacy was a recurring theme, and it is here that discussions of “health security” figured highly. Conclusion Discussions of harm from government and associated official bodies fail to adequately distinguish between various senses of harm. Moreover, while the literature often discusses the balancing of rights, the steps involved in the weighing of these rights is rarely adequately explained and defended. We suggest that decision-makers should endeavour to clearly identify and defend the values undergirding their decisions in the public sphere.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics and Health Security in the Australian COVID-19 Context: A Critical Interpretive Literature Review

Fehross,

Pahlman,

Silva

2023

Bioethical Inquiry

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“…54 As recently commented in an editorial in the Internal Medicine Journal, 'public health agencies have a responsibility to consider how to achieve overall public health goals but with the least restrictive or burdensome strategies, and to weigh each intervention on its merits'. 55 Will we always have to live like this from now? Probably not.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of lockdowns disproportionately affect disadvantaged groups and WHO recommends using more targeted interventions 54 . As recently commented in an editorial in the Internal Medicine Journal , ‘public health agencies have a responsibility to consider how to achieve overall public health goals but with the least restrictive or burdensome strategies, and to weigh each intervention on its merits’ 55 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID‐19 and future pandemics: is isolation and social distancing the new norm?

Collignon

2021

Internal Medicine Journal

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The coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2, is the cause of COVID-19. This virus spreads readily from person to person and predominantly to and from the respiratory route and through droplets. There are many different interventions that can be and are used to decrease successfully the risk and spread of COVID-19. Most of the principles underpinning these interventions relate to isolation and social distancing. These will need to be continued, at least in part, until safe and very effective vaccines become widely available and are delivered extensively and successfully globally. This new norm is isolation, plus social and physical distancing, and this new norm will likely be with us for some time to come. It will also be with us in any future pandemics, whether caused by bacteria or viruses, but especially when the causative pathogen spreads predominantly through the respiratory route. However, lockdowns and restrictions also cause many adverse but unintended economic, social and health consequences. Therefore, what is put into place needs to be proportionate to levels of risk of disease as well as spread, and which will vary in different localities and with time.

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“…These inequitable outcomes of policy choices are in stark contrast to claims that restrictive policies would promote equity. Early in the pandemic, some government agencies promoted the false claim that “this virus does not discriminate”; this might be taken to imply that all members of the population are equally at risk from the virus or that each person has similar reasons to comply with restrictive public health policies (Jamrozik and Heriot 2020 ). Yet, while a new coronavirus can and will eventually infect every living person, infections are often spread more easily in poor communities (e.g.…”

Section: Equitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Public health ethics: critiques of the “new normal”

Jamrozik

2022

Monash Bioeth. Rev.

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The global response to the recent coronavirus pandemic has revealed an ethical crisis in public health. This article analyses key pandemic public health policies in light of widely accepted ethical principles: the need for evidence, the least restrictive/harmful alternative, proportionality, equity, reciprocity, due legal process, and transparency. Many policies would be considered unacceptable according to pre-pandemic norms of public health ethics. There are thus significant opportunities to develop more ethical responses to future pandemics. This paper serves as the introduction to this Special Issue of Monash Bioethics Review and provides background for the other articles in this collection.

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Pandemic public health policy: with great power comes great responsibility

Cited by 4 publications

References 29 publications

Ethics and Health Security in the Australian COVID-19 Context: A Critical Interpretive Literature Review

Ethics and Health Security in the Australian COVID-19 Context: A Critical Interpretive Literature Review

COVID‐19 and future pandemics: is isolation and social distancing the new norm?

Public health ethics: critiques of the “new normal”

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