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Public Health

  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Motivated Ignorance: A Challenge for Science Communication and Democracy

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Many people are deeply interested in the political process and awash in relevant information., but nevertheless often grossly misinformed, holding confident but unfounded opinions at odds with widely accessible evidence The recent riot at Capitol Hill is just one illustration–albeit a horrifying one–of such misinformation and its potential consequences. The anti-vaccine movement is another example.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Resisting Public Health Measures, Then and Now

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    One of the most surprising aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic for those of us who teach the history of public health is how unwilling many Americans have been to adopt health measures to protect others. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, tens of millions of Americans traveled, despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged them to stay home and the overall death rate from the coronavirus is approaching 300,000. Should recent events make us revisit aspects of the history of public health? And how can these stories inform future public health efforts during pandemics?
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  • Hastings Center News

    Protecting Communities from COVID-19

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    Hastings Center News
    FOUR STEPS TO PROTECT COMMUNITIES FROM COVID-19 AND RESTORE THE ECONOMY
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  • Public Trust in Science

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    HASTINGS CONVERSATIONS: A SERIES Dr. Anthony Fauci explored the ethical issues raised by the erosion of trust in science in a new virtual discussion hosted by The Hastings Center. The nation’s top infectious diseases official and Hastings president Mildred Solomon looked at how we can improve ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Are Physicians Hypocrites for Supporting Black Lives Matter Protests and Opposing Anti-Lockdown Protests? An Ethical Analysis

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Physicians have been vocal in condemning the anti-lockdown protests while endorsing and even participating in the Black Lives Matter protests. This has led to criticism of the medical community for being inconsistent and hypocritical. What does an ethical analysis reveal?
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Lawsuits of Last Resort: Employees Fight for Safe Workplaces during Covid-19

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    As more workplaces open up, a seldom-used legal action is being taken against employers charged with inadequately protecting employees from the coronavirus: public nuisance lawsuits.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Pandemic Language

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Language used to describe the response to the pandemic can illuminate, and it can distort. Here I focus on language that obfuscates thinking about the pandemic. As the death toll mounted in New York City in April, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was reported to have declared, “Ventilators are to th...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Social-Change Games Can Help Us Understand the Public Health Choices We Face

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Before there was the Covid-19 pandemic, there was Pandemic. This tabletop game, in which players collaborate to fight disease outbreaks, debuted in 2007. Expansions feature weaponized pathogens, historic pandemics, zoonotic diseases, and vaccine development races. Game mechanics modelled on pandemic vectors provide multiple narratives: battle, quest, detection, discovery. There is satisfaction in playing “against” disease–and winning. Real pandemic is not as tidy as a game. But can games support understanding about the societal challenges we now face? Yes.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    After the Surge: Prioritizing the Backlog of Delayed Hospital Procedures

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The rewards of social distancing are beginning to accrue in former hotspots such as Seattle, the New York metropolitan area, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where the number of new Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalization is declining. Assuming the rewards hold in the face of pressures to reopen the economy, hospitals will now face challenges of reopening their own nonpandemic services for patients whose elective surgeries and other procedures were postponed. Which patients should get priority?
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Individual Freedom or Public Health? A False Choice in the Covid Era

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    When scientists first suggested population-wide social distancing as the only feasible way to suppress Covid-19, they were the first to admit it may not work in a free society. We are now months into placing mass restrictions on human behavior to suppress a virus that lacks an effective vaccine or treatment. Now is the time to ask: is this the authoritarian nightmare many feared, or will freedom and democracy survive Covid-19?
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Beyond the Covid Crisis—A New Social Contract with Public Health

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Covid-19 is teaching us the stern lesson that economic well-being and health justice are two sides of the same coin. To weather pandemics and restore the social contact that economic life demands, we need to sign a new social contract with public health.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Show Me Your Passport: Ethical Concerns About Covid-19 Antibody Testing as Key to Reopening Public Life

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Around the world, governments are looking for safe ways to lift unprecedented restrictions on public activities to curb the spread of Covid-19. So-called immunity passports could be key to the effort to selectively ease restrictions for people presumed to be immune to the virus. But there are scientific and ethical questions to be worked out before they can be deployed. .
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Ethics and Evidence in the Search for a Vaccine and Treatments for Covid-19

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    In the rush to find a Covid-19 vaccine and one or more drugs to treat the deadly disease, concerns are being raised that ethical standards for conducting human clinical trials and the evidentiary standards for determining whether interventions are safe and effective, might be loosened.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    U.S. and Canada: Being Good Neighbors in the Pandemic

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Canada has a fraction of the number of cases of Covid-19 as the U.S. Canadians feel vulnerable. But Canadians and Americans need to find ways to build and maintain trust within and across our borders.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Price of Going Back to Work Too Soon

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    President Donald Trump had, until very recently, spent as much time in his public appearances proclaiming victory over the Covid-19 pandemic rippling across the nation as he had offering directives that would diminish it. Again and again, he promised that it would soon be over, especially as the wea...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    We Need International Medical Graduates to Help Fight Covid-19. Immigration Policies Keep Them Away

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    As the U.S. health care system faces the strain of responding to the coronavirus pandemic, critical services are being provided by international medical graduates, who, in the years and months leading up to this crisis, have found their capacity to contribute limited by increasingly restrictive immi...
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  • Hastings Center News

    America’s Bioethicists and Health Care Leaders: Government Must Use Federal Powers To Fight COVID-19

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    Hastings Center News
    Nearly 1,400 of the nation’s most prominent bioethicists and health leaders signed an urgent letter to Congress and the White House, imploring the U.S. government to immediately use its federal power and funds to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as a matter of moral imperative. The petition was developed by Mildred Solomon, president of The Hastings Center, and Lawrence Gostin, a Hastings Fellow and director of the O’Neill Center for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
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  • Hastings Center News

    The Hastings Center Produces Guidance for Ethical Practice in Responding to COVID-19

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    Hastings Center News
    The Hastings Center has developed a resource for health care institutions and institutional ethics services to support leadership and practice during the novel coronavirus public health emergency and in the care of patients with COVID-19.The Hastings Center convened an expert advisory group to meet the need for a practical resource to support institutional preparedness and supplement public health and clinical practice guidance on COVID-19.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Coronavirus Response Is Insufficient for Vulnerable New Yorkers

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Like most New Yorkers, I take the subway to work. I commute from Brooklyn to my office in Manhattan. By the time I get on the train, there are no seats available. It is nearly assured I will be standing inches away from a stranger.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Health Care for Obesity and Eating Disorders: What Needs to Change

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The theme of National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) week , “Come as you are: Hindsight is 20-20,” is designed to encourage those recovering from eating disorders to reflect on their journeys towards body acceptance. It also affords doctors and other health professionals an opportunity to evaluate how well they are doing to help patients reach this goal.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Report from China: Ethical Questions on the Response to the Coronavirus

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Hastings Center fellows in China discuss ethical questions about the response to the spreading coronavirus.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Center’s Rosemary Gibson Honored for Enhancing Health Care Quality

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    Hastings Center News
    The American Pharmacists Association Foundation recognized Hastings Center’s Rosemary Gibson with a 2019 Pinnacle Award for career achievement on Monday, September 16. 
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Public Charge Rule Is a Eugenic Policy

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Last week, the Department of Homeland Security  announced the final public charge rule, which revises the interpretation of “public charge” in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the Final Rule, DHS may find applicants ineligible for a visa for admission to the U.S. or a green card grant...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    From Outcry to Solidarity with Migrants: What Is the Good We Can Do?

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Another June. Another public outcry about cruelty as policy harming migrants in United States custody. This summer, the photo of a drowned family, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria, of El Salvador, shocks the conscience. Reporters are documenting the inhumane conditions in a Border Patrol facility where hundreds of children have been held. How should our field respond?
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Forced from Home: Evicting Immigrants from Public Housing Harms Children’s Health

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The federal government's proposed rule to disqualify families from public housing if any member is undocumented will harm children, families, and cities.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Staying in Their Lane: Health Professionals Must Address Gun Violence

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    In the wake of the recent Twitter fight between the National Rifle Association and U.S. physician groups over whether doctors should speak out about firearm policy issues, we argue that professionalism actually requires that doctors take a leadership role in gun policy debates, even if (in fact, espe...
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  • Hastings Center News

    New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild

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    Hastings Center News
    With funding from the National Science Foundation, a new Hastings Center project will examine the rationale and challenges of public deliberation on the release of genetically modified insects, mammals, and other organisms into the environment.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Immigrant Health and the Moral Scandal of the “Public Charge” Rule

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    A long-anticipated policy change proposed by the Trump administration that would count the use of many federally-subsidized programs against immigrants currently eligible to use them threatens public health and would undermine ethical practice in health professions and systems.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Should Gene-Edited Mice Be Released to Control Lyme Disease?

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    Hastings Center News
    Hastings Center research scholar Carolyn P. Neuhaus participated in a panel discussion on Martha’s Vineyard on July 12 to discuss a proposal to release genetically modified mice to curb the spread of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. A Netflix film crew recorded the event, which featured...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Newspaper Op-Eds Should Disclose Authors’ Industry Ties

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Earlier this month, The Seattle Times published an op-ed by Samuel Browd, medical director of Seattle Children’s Sport Concussion Program, on the risks of brain injury in youth sports. Dr. Browd acknowledged troubling research on the dangers of repetitive brain trauma, but also emphasized that mil...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    At a time when facts are distorted, disregarded, and ignored in policy making and political discourse, the need in Washington for seekers and defenders of truth has perhaps never been greater. I discussed the state of affairs with Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois who prides himsel...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Is it Time to Regulate the Sale of Sugar to Minors?

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    In “Tackling Obesity and Disease: The Culprit Is Sugar; the Response is Legal Regulation,” published in the Hastings Center Report, Lawrence O. Gostin describes four coordinated interventions that have been effective at controlling peoples’ tobacco consumption and which can serve as a “powerf...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Questions About Conscientious Objection in Health Care

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    Hastings Center News
    In January the Department of Health and Human Services acted to increase enforcement of laws that permit doctors and other health care workers to refuse to provide services such as abortion because of moral or religious objections. A new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the department’s...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    After Hurricane Harvey, Injustice in Houston

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Hurricane Harvey dissipated in September, but much of the destruction that it wreaked on Texas and Louisiana remains. When addressing residential concerns, disaster relief officials prioritize the newly homeless over the chronically homeless, choosing to protect the previously privileged over the unp...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Center Scholar Addresses Implications of CDC Avoiding Seven Words

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    Hastings Center News
    Vulnerable. Entitlement. Diversity. Transgender. Fetus. Evidence-based. Science-based. Last week, news outlets reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been advised to avoid using these seven words in budget documents. In an interview with Medscape Hastings Center research sc...
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  • Hastings Center News

    What Do We Owe Frail Older People?

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    Hastings Center News
    A woman juggles caring for her aged father at home and going to work. A volunteer cares for an 83-year-old man who lives alone and wonders why the man’s son doesn’t take more of an interest. Staff members at a nursing home, discussing a patient with dementia who hits staff members, wonder if it...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    After the Election Bioethics Faces a Rocky Road

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Academic bioethics has never been popular with Republicans. Libertarians dislike academic bioethics because it seems too elitist and anti-free market.  Religious thinkers worry it is technocratic, soulless and crassly utilitarian. Now with Trumpism add a populist disdain for expertise, experts and t...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Lincoln’s Promise: Congress, Veterans, and Traumatic Brain Injury

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Perhaps we were naïve. Our plan was relatively simple: we would chart the legislative evolution of programs for veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) to identify policy gaps for this underserved and vulnerable population. With recent media attention highlighting the U.S. Department of Veteran...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Good of the Body

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The December 2015 United Nations meeting on climate change was an historic moment for global efforts to reduce harmful carbon emissions. While it gained the agreement about the future good of the planet, it made clear that there is a long and hard road still ahead. Yet another global challenge is ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Responding to Zika: Ethical Challenges of Zoonotic Diseases

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The World Health Organization will hold an emergency committee meeting on the pandemic reemergence of Zika virus and the explosive increase in reported cases of congenital microcephaly in Brazil possibly linked to Zika on February 1. The virus is a mosquito-borne infection in the same family as Wes...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Responding to Ebola: Health Care Professionals’ Obligations to Provide Care

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    As health care institutions in the United States prepare for Ebola patients, many have adopted the policy that those providing hands-on care should come from a pool of volunteers. Given the mixed history of health care providers’ willingness to care for patients during epidemics and pandemics, an...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Belief in a Just World: A Case Study in Public Health Ethics

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Why did portraying a married, working, loving, family-oriented, and religious couple with a disabled child bring out consistently negative reactions among the public toward allowing this family access to government-subsidized health care for their children? The answer may lie in a study by the Nation...
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