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  • Stakeholder analyses

    Ethics in a pandemic is less often about the right decision than about the right way to make decisions. Stakeholder analysis is an important part in assembling the right group to make a particular decision. Tools for stakeholder analysis are … Read more

  • What we’ve learned

    Katelyn Jetelina – Your Local Epidemiologist – listed her post-COVID lessons: Meet people where they are, not where you wish they were. It’s not a website with an 85-page PDF, nor in polished press conferences. Listen to frustrations, confusion, and … Read more

  • Unlearning colonial ways of doing good

    How can we protect the health of populations in ways that are just and non-colonial? I describe the roots of colonialism, what it looks like today, and how to unlearn what we’ve unconsciously adopted in “But I Meant Well: Unlearning … Read more

  • Ethics Competencies

    Competencies in public health ethics to teach in public health programs are available on the Public Health Ethics and Law website.

  • A faith-based perspective on ending PEPFAR

    “We should be evaluating policies and programs not merely by the party that supports them, but by the ways they bring about or hinder human flourishing.” The Future of PEPFAR: A Faith-Based Perspective on Global Health Policy Changes  

  • Moral courage

    Standing firm for what one believes takes courage. This week we saw an object lesson in courage as leaders of the CDC, cheered on by employees, resigned rather than deny the scientific basis of public health decisions.  

  • Neglected topics

    I recently declined to edit a textbook on pandemic ethics (I’m writing another ethics-related book at the moment). Had I agreed, though, I wanted to include chapters on neglected topics, such as: social forces like nationalism that affect the likelihood … Read more

  • Policy-based evidence making

    The U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been reformed to reflect the views of Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The committee now includes several people who are not well-informed about science or vaccines. In this recent … Read more

  • Pandemic Agreement

    World Health Assembly adopts historic Pandemic Agreement to make the world more equitable and safer from future pandemics. https://www.who.int/news/item/20-05-2025-world-health-assembly-adopts-historic-pandemic-agreement-to-make-the-world-more-equitable-and-safer-from-future-pandemics

  • Threats to Public Health at Every Angle

    Epidemiologist, Katelyn Jetelina, writes an insightful and free-of-jargon explanation of the week’s developments in public health in her Substack column called Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE). In her March 28, 2025 issue, the anniversary of the beginning of the Covid pandemic, … Read more

  • Pandemic Ethics and Nursing Practice: When Will We Learn?

    “Both reason and emotions should be engaged in ethical decision-making. Situations and cases which reflect the complex, emotional, relational and cultural dimensions of ethics should be used or developed for pandemic ethics education.” In: Scott, PA and Scott SM. (Eds) … Read more

  • Covid heroes

    During New York City’s darkest days, some residents found purpose and meaning in helping their neighbors stay safe and even find a bit of joy. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/nyregion/new-york-pandemic-heroes.html?searchResultPosition=9      

  • What Covid has taught the world about ethics

    What Covid has taught the world about ethics. New England Journal of Medicine, Oct 22, 2022,Vol 387,No 17; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2210173.

  • Systemic moral courage

    As we spin in the Waring blender that is dismantling federal public health institutions, and as misinformation is promoted from the top, public health workers need to know when and how to exercise courage and resistance. You can find some … Read more

  • What COVID taught us

    The COVID pandemic was a stress test for public health ethics. Ethical Implications of COVID-19 Management: Evaluating the Aftershock (2022), from Ethics Press is an edited book of helpful insights.



What is Pandemic Ethics?

A pandemic is pervasive in scope and touches virtually every human-made system. In this guidance, we focus on ethics in a government’s or an employer’s actions in a pandemic.

Public health ethics addresses the relationship between those governing or administrating and the population or employees they serve. They are best summarized by the Public Health Code of Ethics of the American Public Health Association.

Contact Jim Thomas

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