The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming bioethical questions facing the healthcare system, society, and the world at large. This page presents recent writing and presentations by the faculty and staff of the IU Center for Bioethics, and additional materials selected by them as essential to understanding ethics and COVID-19. 

Click the links below to see more writing and presentations created by Center faculty and staff, or older recommended writing and presentations.  These are grouped into categories:  Public health measures, Vaccine Ethics, Research during a pandemic, Racial and Social Disparities.

Writing and Presentations by the IU Center for Bioethics Faculty and Staff

Dr. Aaron Carroll

• We've Never Protected the Vulnerable. The Atlantic (September 5th, 2021)
• Go Ahead. Vaccinate the Kids. The Atlantic (August 17th, 2021)
• Covid Is Now a Crisis for the Unvaccinated, New York Times (July 27th, 2021)

Professor Ross D. Silverman

• Covid-19, equity, and inclusiveness

IUCB Faculty member Ross Silverman, JD, MPH, is a senior author for this editorial in the BMJ. It follows up a piece he and his coauthors wrote about a year ago on the need for a pandemic response grounded in equity.  They hope to spotlight the disparate experiences felt by many minoritized and vulnerable populations (and nations) during this global crisis, and to encourage policies that can both prioritize addressing those inequities and help build communities more resilient to future crises.

To read more faculty writing, please click here. 

Selected Writing and Presentation

Vaccine Ethics

Vaccine Mandates Aren't Enough. Make Unvaccinated People Pay if They Harm Others, Barron's ( Arthur Caplan and Dorit R. Reiss, August 3rd, 2021)

Can Your Employer Require That You Get Vaccinated? It Depends Where You Live, Time (Glenn Cohen, August 2, 2021)

Ethical Considerations of Offering Benefits to COVID-19 Vaccine Recipients. (Persad G, Emanuel EJ. JAMA.) 

Racial Disparities

U.S. Life Expectancy Plunged in 2020, Especially for Black and Hispanic Americans, New York Times

Comment:

• Life expectancy assessment, one of several measures of community and individual health, fell for all people in the US last year. Primarily due to the pandemic, but also reflecting long-standing inequities in healthcare access and quality of care, minority and marginalized persons experienced a disproportionately larger drop in life expectancy than did white or affluent persons.

Public Health Policy

Public Health Law after Covid-19

• The authors review the history of and recent legal decisions related to public health emergencies

The C.D.C needs to stop confusing the public

• Explains how the CDC has failed to follow its own advice on managing information during a pandemic, and how they can do better.

To read more selected writing, please click here. 

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