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Pandemic Flu Planning in the Community: What Can Clinical Ethicists Bring to the Public Health Table?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

NANCY BERLINGER  and
JACOB MOSES
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Extract

It is still remarkably difficult for public health officials charged with developing and implementing pandemic influenza preparedness plans at the community level—where care is delivered—to obtain clear, concrete, and consistent guidance on how to construct plans that are both ethical and actionable. As of mid-2007, most of the federal and state pandemic plans filed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describing how public health officials will coordinate public agencies and private entities in the event of an outbreak, failed to include ethical guidance for first responders responsible for providing essential services and making fair decisions during a public health emergency.

Type
Perspectives
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 468 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

1 Thomas JC, Dasgupta N, Martinot A. Ethics in a pandemic: A survey of the state pandemic influenza plans. American Journal of Public Health 2007;97(Suppl 1):S26–31.

2 Berg J, King N. Strange bedfellows? Reflections on bioethics’ role in disaster response planning. American Journal of Bioethics 2006;6(5):3–5.

3 For examples of such models see “Promising Practices: Pandemic Preparedness Tools,” a project of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), funded by The Pew Center on the States. The “Promising Practices” web site includes an annotated, peer-reviewed list of pandemic planning resources that include significant attention to ethical issues: available at http://www.pandemicpractices.org. See also Berlinger N, Moses J. The five people you meet in a pandemic—and what they need from you today. Bioethics Backgrounder, November 2007, available at http://www.thehastingscenter.org/backgrounder-flu-pandemic.asp or through www.pandemicpractices.org.