Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication
The World Bank
Year
2025
Citation Information
Govind Persad, Ethical Issues in Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, in Disease Control Priorities: Investing in Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, 427 (4th ed., Sharma Siddanth et al. eds., 2025), available at https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-2213-1.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-2213-1
Abstract
Pandemic policies raise complex ethical challenges, as well as scientific and technical ones. This chapter examines four critical areas where ethical analysis is essential for effective pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response: spending decisions, clinical research, restrictions on rights and freedoms, and fair allocation of scarce medical resources.
Spending on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response often involves trade-offs with other societal priorities, such as education, infrastructure, and environment. Navigating these trade-offs requires careful consideration of opportunity costs and distributional impacts.
Rights and freedoms can likewise present difficult trade-offs when pandemic policies restrict individual liberties, requiring clear goals and proportionate responses that consider differential impacts across populations.
Clinical research during pandemics must maintain ethical standards while addressing urgent public health needs. This chapter illustrates this imperative by exploring how ethical standards apply to challenge trials and to randomized studies of policy interventions.
Finally, scarce pandemic countermeasures like vaccines and therapeutics demand fair allocation frameworks that serve four core objectives: benefiting people, mitigating disadvantage, ensuring equal concern, and recognizing reciprocity.
Copyright Statement
Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Comments
Book chapter by Govind Persad in:
Sharma, Siddanth, Stefano M. Bertozzi, Victoria Y. Fan, Dean T. Jamison, Ole F. Norheim, Hitoshi Oshitani, and Muhammad Ali Pate, eds. 2026. Investing in Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response. Disease Control Priorities, fourth edition, volume 2. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-2213-1. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO