The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is continuing to provide independent information and advice to ensure that ethics is a key consideration in rapidly developing government and societal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the UK.
This newsletter has our most recent updates, and you can find all of our work related to COVID-19 in a dedicated section on our website.
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Upcoming webinar on Friday 15 May: COVID-19 and policy making: the role of public engagement and deliberation
The fourth in our current series of COVID-19-related webinars will explore the importance of transparency, and of public involvement and deliberation in research and policy where public interests and values are at stake. We ask whether the Prime Minister’s commitment to ‘maximum transparency’ is at least a step in the right direction. This meeting will be of interest to those in policy roles as well as interested academics, public and third sector groups, industry and members of the public.
A recording and summary of the webinar will be available on our website shortly afterwards.
The webinar will take place 12.00 – 12.40 BST on Friday 15 May.
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Statement and letter to the Prime Minister
On 25 April, we released a statement – COVID-19 and the basics of democratic governance – highlighting our concerns about obscurity and lack of transparency by the UK Government in decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic; and how important transparency is for trust. We called on the UK Government to:
- Show us (the public) what it is doing and thinking across the range of issues of concern
- Set out the ethical considerations that inform(ed) its judgements
- Explain how it has arrived at decisions (including taking advice from e.g. the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), the Moral and Ethical Advisory Group, and not that it is just ‘following the science’
- Invite a broad range of perspectives into the room, including wider public representation
- Think ahead – consult and engage other civic interests
Following our statement, we wrote jointly with Involve to the Prime Minister, calling for greater transparency and public involvement in the UK response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar on 15 May will provide opportunity for further discussion of these important issues.
Webinar series
You can watch recordings of our previous COVID-19 related webinars:
Blogs
We have published a number of blog posts by our Council members and staff to provide expert commentary on events as they develop:
Repository of COVID-19 resources (ongoing)
We have drawn together a list of blogs, journal articles and policy guidance documents that focus on the ethical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The repository grows larger every day.
Rapid policy briefings
We are currently finalising two rapid policy briefings: one on fair and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, and the other on testing and immunity certification. These will be published on our COVID-19 page when they are complete.
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Research in global health emergencies
Translations
Following the publication of Research in global health emergencies: ethical issues in January, we have been working with partners to translate the report into different languages.
French: In addition to one-page overview already available, a French translation of our short report is now available.
Thank you to our working group members, Karl Blanchet and Philippe Guérin, for assisting with the French translation.
Spanish and Portuguese: In addition to one-page overviews already available, Portuguese and Spanish translations of our short report will be available imminently.
Thank you to our working group member, Beatriz da Costa Thomé, for her assistance in arranging the Portuguese translation.
Farsi: Our one-page overview and short report are now available in Farsi.
Many thanks to Fatemeh Bahmani, MD, Phd; Saeedeh Saeedi Tehrani MD, Phd; Mina Forouzandeh, MD, Phd; and Akram Hashemi, MD, Phd, who contributed to the translation of our short report and one-page overview into Farsi. They are affiliated with The Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) Department of Medical Ethics.
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Evidence reviews on community engagement
We have published four evidence reviews that explore community agency and community engagement in four global health emergencies. These reviews contributed significantly to our global health emergencies report.
The four emergencies considered by the reviews are:
The evidence reviews provide a rich account of the initiatives, programmes, and schemes organised by affected community members in response to the four emergencies; and those established by charities, NGOs, and government bodies. They look at the benefits of the engagement initiatives, as well as problems that they encountered.
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