Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 28;12(2):65-83.
doi: 10.1007/s41649-020-00125-3. eCollection 2020 Jun.

The Perfect Moral Storm: Diverse Ethical Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vicki Xafis  1 , G Owen Schaefer  1 , Markus K Labude  1 , Yujia Zhu  1 , Li Yan Hsu  1   2
Affiliations

The Perfect Moral Storm: Diverse Ethical Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vicki Xafis et al. Asian Bioeth Rev. .

Erratum in

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has both exposed and created deep rifts in society. It has thrust us into deep ethical thinking to help justify the difficult decisions many will be called upon to make and to protect from decisions that lack ethical underpinnings. This paper aims to highlight ethical issues in six different areas of life highlighting the enormity of the task we are faced with globally. In the context of COVID-19, we consider health inequity, dilemmas in triage and allocation of scarce resources, ethical issues associated with research, ethical considerations relating to tracing apps, and exit strategies such as immunity passports and COVID-19 vaccines. Finally, we consider environmental issues in light of COVID-19. The paper also offers some ethical reflection on these areas as many parts of the world contemplate the recovery phase.

Keywords: COVID-19; Health inequity; Immunity passports; Resource allocation; SARS-CoV-2; Tracing apps; Triage; Vaccines.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Allen, Arthur. 2020. Why the push for a quick coronavirus vaccine could backfire. Politico, 20 March 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/20/why-the-push-for-a-quick-corona.... Accessed 13 April 2020.
    1. Altman, Douglas G. 1980. Statistics and ethics in medical research: III how large a sample? BMJ 281 (6251): 1336–1338. 10.1136/bmj.281.6251.1336. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baharudin, Hariz and Lester Wong. 2020. Coronavirus: Singapore develops smartphone app for efficient contact tracing. Straits Times, 20 March 2020. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-singapore-develops-sm.... Accessed 7 April 2020.
    1. Bakos, Yannis, Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, and David R. Trossen. 2014. Does anyone read the fine print? Consumer attention to standard-form contracts. Journal of Legal Studies 43 (1): 1–35. 10.1086/674424. - DOI
    1. Ballantyne, Angela. 2020. ICU triage: how many lives or whose lives? Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, 7 April 2020. https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2020/04/07/icu-triage-how-many-live.... Accessed 13 April 2020.

LinkOut - more resources