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Review
. 2021 Jun:17:100635.
doi: 10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100635. Epub 2021 Jan 31.

COVID-19: Public health issues and ethical dilemmas

Affiliations
Review

COVID-19: Public health issues and ethical dilemmas

C Kooli. Ethics Med Public Health. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

There are various ethical dilemmas faced by the healthcare sectors, especially at times of pandemics and health emergencies, which is more prominently visible in the case of public healthcare sectors. Keeping this into consideration, the concerned study had emphasized exploring the ethical dilemmas that are faced by the public health care sectors across the globe, in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic situations in the current period. The secondary and qualitative information collected for the concerned study has been analyzed and interpreted using the thematic analytical framework and following the inductive approach. Substantial evidence has revealed that the public health care system globally has been facing a scarcity of resources and allocation of responsibilities to the care provider. There has been disparity noted in the implementation of public health care ethics. The importance of ethics in the public healthcare system cannot be denied however, the issues noted during this pandemic situation have been associated with lack of accountability, issues in resource allocation, and loss of trustworthiness in the healthcare provisions. Hence, there is a need for changes to be made in the public policies and health policies so that the public health institutions are more prepared to deal with emergencies such as the one created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ethics; Healthcare sectors; Public health; Public policies.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
How to deal with COVID-19: ethical dilemmas in public health sector.

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