Wenckebach Institute for Education and Training, University Medical Center, Groningen, FC 40 - Hanzeplein 1, PO Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands; European Public Health Association, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands, Email:
J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2021 Jun;51(S1):S47-S52. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2021.241.
Public health ethics is the discipline that ensures that public health professionals and policy makers explain what they do, and why. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ethical deliberations often did not feature explicitly in public health decisions, thus reducing transparency and consistency in decision-making processes, and resulting in loss of trust by the general public. A public health ethics framework based on principles would add to transparency and consistency in public health decision-making. A framework of seven principles is presented and illustrated by applying them to vital COVID-19 ethical questions. Next the question of COVID-19 vaccination shows how the principles work in conjunction. In conclusion, embedding explicit ethical analysis in public health work is necessary to be trustworthy and regain trust. Preparedness for future challenges implies making the public health community more 'ethically literate'.
公共卫生伦理学是一门确保公共卫生专业人员和政策制定者能够解释他们所做的事情及其原因的学科。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，伦理审议在公共卫生决策中并未明确体现，从而降低了决策过程的透明度和一致性，并导致公众失去信任。基于原则的公共卫生伦理学框架将增加公共卫生决策的透明度和一致性。本文提出了一个由七个原则组成的框架，并通过将其应用于至关重要的 COVID-19 伦理问题来说明。接下来，COVID-19 疫苗接种问题表明了这些原则是如何协同发挥作用的。最后得出结论，在公共卫生工作中嵌入明确的伦理分析对于建立信任和重新获得信任是必要的。为未来的挑战做好准备意味着要使公共卫生界更加“有伦理意识”。
