ETHICS FOUNDATIONS
This report established the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.
What is the Belmont Report?
This early 20th century pandemic killed millions worldwide and revealed major failures in public health communication and preparedness.
What was the 1918 influenza pandemic?
COVID-19 disproportionately affected these groups in the U.S. due to structural inequities.
Who are Black, Indigenous, and Latinx populations (or marginalized communities)?
This factor largely explains why some countries achieved high compliance with COVID measures while others did not.
What is trust in government and/or public health?
This agreement governs global intellectual property rules and became central during COVID vaccine debates.
What is the TRIPS Agreement?
This principle requires that public health interventions use the least restrictive means necessary.
What is the Least Restrictive Alternative?
In this outbreak, communities avoided calling hotlines because they feared being taken away and dying.
What is Ebola?
This concept refers to the social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health outcomes.
What are the Social determinants of health?
In Tanzania, this factor significantly changed vaccine uptake between two administrations.
What is a change in political leadership?
This proposal aimed to temporarily waive IP protections to increase vaccine access globally.
What is a TRIPS Waiver?
If the government restricts people’s movement, this ethical principle requires providing support like food, income, or care.
What is Reciprocity?
This outbreak placed women’s reproductive rights and access to contraception at the center of the ethical debate.
What is Zika?
This historical myth falsely suggested Black people were biologically immune to yellow fever.
What is Biological racial immunity (or race-based biological difference)?
These frontline implementers translate policy into practice at the community level.
What are street-level bureaucrats?
This concept describes two-way exchange of ideas between high- and low-income countries.
What is reciprocal innovation?
This principle asks whether a public health measure is appropriate in scale relative to the threat.
What is Proportionality?
This outbreak response in Singapore showed that strong government coordination and public trust can enable strict quarantine measures.
What is SARS?
Policies that appear neutral but produce unequal outcomes are often described using this term.
What is Structural inequality or structural racism?
This type of system may act quickly in a pandemic but risks suppressing information and reducing transparency.
What is an autocracy or an authoritarian system?
A major ethical concern about pharmaceutical patents during pandemics
What can limit access and/or create inequity and/or prioritize profit over access?
The “Four R’s” from ethical community engagement in Ebola vaccine trials.
What are Reciprocity, Relatability, Relationships, or Respect?
This disease highlighted the importance of long-term global investment, activism, and community-led care to transform a deadly epidemic.
What is HIV?
May produce unequal outcomes and reveal underlying health disparities and structural inequities affect baseline health and access
What is a “colorblind” triage system?
Builds trust, improves compliance, enables accountability
What is transparency in a public health system?
It is not just about patents. It also depends on public funding, manufacturing, knowledge sharing, and collaboration
What is biomedical innovation?