Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic
Summary: Communicating public health guidance is key to mitigating risk during disasters and outbreaks, and ethical guidance on communication emphasizes being fully transparent. Yet, communication during the pandemic has sometimes been fraught, due in part to practical and conceptual challenges arou...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2022-12-01
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| Series: | The Lancet Regional Health. Americas |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22001910 |
| _version_ | 1828221715732234240 |
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| author | Abigail E. Lowe Teck Chuan Voo Lisa M. Lee Kelly K. Dineen Gillespie Christy Feig Alva O. Ferdinand Seema Mohapatra David M. Brett-Major Matthew K. Wynia |
| author_facet | Abigail E. Lowe Teck Chuan Voo Lisa M. Lee Kelly K. Dineen Gillespie Christy Feig Alva O. Ferdinand Seema Mohapatra David M. Brett-Major Matthew K. Wynia |
| author_sort | Abigail E. Lowe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: Communicating public health guidance is key to mitigating risk during disasters and outbreaks, and ethical guidance on communication emphasizes being fully transparent. Yet, communication during the pandemic has sometimes been fraught, due in part to practical and conceptual challenges around being transparent. A particular challenge has arisen when there was both evolving scientific knowledge on COVID-19 and reticence to acknowledge that resource scarcity concerns were influencing public health recommendations. This essay uses the example of communicating public health guidance on masking in the United States to illustrate ethical challenges of developing and conveying public health guidance under twin conditions of uncertainty and resource scarcity. Such situations require balancing two key principles in public health ethics: the precautionary principle and harm reduction. Transparency remains a bedrock value to guide risk communication, but optimizing transparency requires consideration of additional ethical values in developing and implementing risk communication strategies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:44:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9262a6cfdfeb4e48b301aa69c6f79e4e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2667-193X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:44:22Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Lancet Regional Health. Americas |
| spelling | doaj.art-9262a6cfdfeb4e48b301aa69c6f79e4e2022-12-22T03:24:38ZengElsevierThe Lancet Regional Health. Americas2667-193X2022-12-0116100374Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemicAbigail E. Lowe0Teck Chuan Voo1Lisa M. Lee2Kelly K. Dineen Gillespie3Christy Feig4Alva O. Ferdinand5Seema Mohapatra6David M. Brett-Major7Matthew K. Wynia8Global Center for Health Security, College of Allied Health Professions, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; Corresponding author at: Global Center for Health Security, College of Allied Health Professions, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984388 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-4388, USA.NUS Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, SingaporeAssociate vice president for research and innovation and director of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance, Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, and research professor, Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USADirector of the health law program and associate professor of law and professor of medical humanities (secondary), Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USAManaging director of communications, The Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, New York, USAAassociate professor and director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center, Texas A&M University School of Public Health, College Station, Texas, USAM.D. Anderson Foundation Endowed Professor in Health Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas, Texas, USACollege of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USACenter for bioethics and humanities and professor of medicine and public health, University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora, Colorado, USASummary: Communicating public health guidance is key to mitigating risk during disasters and outbreaks, and ethical guidance on communication emphasizes being fully transparent. Yet, communication during the pandemic has sometimes been fraught, due in part to practical and conceptual challenges around being transparent. A particular challenge has arisen when there was both evolving scientific knowledge on COVID-19 and reticence to acknowledge that resource scarcity concerns were influencing public health recommendations. This essay uses the example of communicating public health guidance on masking in the United States to illustrate ethical challenges of developing and conveying public health guidance under twin conditions of uncertainty and resource scarcity. Such situations require balancing two key principles in public health ethics: the precautionary principle and harm reduction. Transparency remains a bedrock value to guide risk communication, but optimizing transparency requires consideration of additional ethical values in developing and implementing risk communication strategies.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22001910Risk communicationCOVID-19PandemicTransparencyPrecautionary principleInfection prevention and control |
| spellingShingle | Abigail E. Lowe Teck Chuan Voo Lisa M. Lee Kelly K. Dineen Gillespie Christy Feig Alva O. Ferdinand Seema Mohapatra David M. Brett-Major Matthew K. Wynia Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic The Lancet Regional Health. Americas Risk communication COVID-19 Pandemic Transparency Precautionary principle Infection prevention and control |
| title | Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| title_full | Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| title_short | Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| title_sort | uncertainty scarcity and transparency public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic |
| topic | Risk communication COVID-19 Pandemic Transparency Precautionary principle Infection prevention and control |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22001910 |
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