When the COVID-19 outbreak happened in March 2020, the sprea…
When the COVID-19 outbreak happened in March 2020, the spread of the virus showcased a case study of ethical issues within pandemic response and planning. When COVID-19 was finally understood as a pandemic, there were thousands of cases (if not, tens of thousands) confirmed across the world. With people dying from the virus with little information to go from, this created a healthcare crisis at a global scale. Thus, generating the immediate need for life saving measures, including implementation of social distancing and the speedy creation of a vaccine. When responding to a global pandemic, time is not on your side. It is critical for healthcare professionals to establish safe, ethical responses in a timely manner. However, this expedites healthcare efforts, which can add risk to drug or vaccine trials. The amount of risk that is justifiable during a pandemic is an ongoing debate within the healthcare field. In the beginning, without a vaccine, there were implementation of social distancing to help prevent further disease spread and loss of life. There will always be an ethical and legal discussion between lawmakers and public health professionals on “ does the good of the population become more important than individual liberties”. The decisions made in these high-risk situations have extensive political, social, and financial consequences on a micro and macro level. If the medical emergency, or pandemic, overwhelm the healthcare field or the capacity of facilities – even more important ethical questions come up. If needs exceed capacity, it may be where healthcare professionals determine who should receive lifesaving treatment or have access to equipment that may prolong life. Taking what you learned from class on health law, policy, and ethics, answer the following question. · How should public health and healthcare professionals decide who gets treatment, if there is not enough treatments/equipment for everyone? o Being that it is the responsibility of public health professionals to try and prevent bias, how should the field address “age bias” or other forms of discrimination (when deciding on who should get treatment)? · When it comes to the development of a new vaccine or experimental treatment of a disease, how do public health professionals ensure the proper consideration and balance between the potential risk to patients versus the potential rewards they promise? · What is the role that public health professionals play in determining, enforcing, and understanding policies that may help the overall health of the population but may restrict individual liberties of their patients? The minimum word count is 400.