Ethical Issues Involving COVID-19

Part I 

Question 1 

Noncompliance of some member of the public to set regulations regarding COVID-19 causes risk to the entire public. The issue needs to be handled with a lot of caution given the ethical balance regarding individual autonomy. As a public health officer, it is important to engage apply transparency in engaging the public on these concerns to minimize resistance on the measures to be taken (Jamrozik & Selgelid, 2020). Some of the communication strategies that I would implement to address these concerns include: 

Being Conscious to Diversity 

Different communities communicate differently, it is important to consider this important factor when coming up with messages for the public. A rigid approach in communication may lead to disparity in acceptability among different cultural groups in the community. It is important to use a variety of communication styles to take care of the different ages, races and genders. 

Pay Attention to Details 

As a public health officer, it is often easy to make assumptions in regard to communicating basic knowledge and facts to the public. The messages on guidelines can be followed can be misunderstood and misinterpreted because some details were left out. All facts should be considered as significant to bring about clarity. 

Use Several Communication Channels 

For maximum levels of transparency, it is important that the message regarding COVID-19 is broadcasted widely to all members of the public. Different individuals in society have varying priorities on the channels of communication they have access to frequently. To focus on a limited number of communication channels is to limit the spread of the message, this may lead to lack of access to information by certain individuals. 

Question 2 

Bridging the communication gap is very necessary in engaging the public and should be made a priority by public health officers. First of all, ethical considerations mandate that the public involved must be fully informed about any interventions that directly affects them (Collier, 2017). This aspect must not be ignored by public health officers who are required to work within ethical boundaries. Secondly, for success of any public endeavors to curb the pandemic, levels of public acceptability must be very high. Bridging this gap will increase transparency and subsequently enhancing acceptability. 

Part II 

Question 1 

Vaccine study often results to risk when the vaccine on trial does not protect the for participants in the study. In some cases, the vaccine may even worsen the condition of the participants that had already been infected. In extreme scenarios, death may even occur to participants of the study. Such risks have been observed in previous studies of dengue fever vaccine and are likely to be experienced with corona virus vaccine studies. In relation to COVID-19, participants in vaccine studies are likely to experience severe respiratory problems and other symptomatic conditions that present themselves in patients of COVID-19. Mutation of the virus may also cause future infection problems to participants who partake in the vaccine trial. These risks are significant because the severity of their effects may determine whether the COVID-19 vaccine studies are acceptable or not. 

Question 2 

Participants enrolling in COVID-19 human challenge studies may encounter risk of infection of the virus. Though these studies control such risks by ensuring appropriate healthcare is readily available and participants belong to least risk age categories, there are chances of serious short term and long-term complications resulting from the infection. Empirical evidence has shown that healthy adults of between the ages oof 18 to 29 have been largely asymptomatic when infected with the various. COVID-19 being a novel disease, the levels of uncertainty with regard to risks associated with it are higher than normal. However, these studies may not necessarily breach ethical guidelines if they result in benefits for society and compensation is made to any harm that may befall a participant of the study. Also, participants in future related studies will face less risks and uncertainty since new findings will be discovered and help design more predictable human challenge studies. 

References 

Collier, R. (2017). WHO guidelines on ethical public health surveillance. Canadian Medical Association Journal , 189 (29). https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1095453 

Jamrozik, E., & Selgelid, M. J. (2020). COVID-19 human challenge studies: ethical issues. The Lancet Infectious Diseases , 20 (8). https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30438-2