Priority setting for pandemic preparedness and response:A comparative analysis of COVID-19 pandemic plans in 12 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted health systems and exacerbated pre-existing resource gaps in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMRO). Active humanitarian and refugee crises have led to mass population displacement and increased health system fragility, which has implication for equitable priority setting (PS). We examine whether and how PS was included in national COVID-19 pandemic plans within EMRO.Methods: An analysis of COVID-19 pandemic response and preparedness planning documents from a sample of 12/22 countries in WHO-EMRO. We assessed the degree to which documented PS processes adhere to twenty established quality parameters of effective PS.Results: While all reviewed plans addressed some aspect of PS, none included all quality parameters. Yemen’s plan included the highest number (9) of quality parameters, while Egypt’s addressed the lowest (3). Most plans used evidence in their planning processes. While no plans explicitly identify equity as a criterion to guide PS; many identified vulnerable populations - a key component of equitable PS. Despite high concentrations of refugees, migrants, and IDPs in EMRO, only a quarter of the plans identified them as vulnerable.Conclusion: PS setting challenges are exacerbated by conflict and the resulting health system fragmentation. Systematic and quality PS is essential to tackle long-term health implications of COVID-19 for vulnerable populations in this region, and to support effective PS and equitable resource allocation

Ethical allocation of scarce health care resources in the context of the COVID-19 crisis

The current COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to overwhelm the capacity of hospitals and Intensive Care Units in Chile and Latin America. Thus local authorities have an ethical obligation to be prepared by implementing pertinent measures to prevent a situation of rationing of scarce healthcare resources, and by defining ethically acceptable and socially legitimate criteria for the allocation of these resources. This paper responds to recent ethical guidelines issued by a Chilean academic institution and discusses the main moral principles for the ethical foundations of criteria for rationing during the present crisis. It argues that under exceptional circumstances such as the current pandemic, the traditional patient-centered morality of medicine needs to be balanced with ethical principles formulated from a public health perspective, including the principles of social utility, social justice and equity, among others. The paper concludes with some recommendations regarding how to reach an agreement about rationing criteria and about their implementation in clinical practice

Do honeybees have concepts?

Can animals think? In this paper I address the proposal that many animals, including insects such as honeybees, have genuine thoughts. I consider one prominent version of this view (Carruthers 2004; 2006) that claims that honeybees can represent and process information about their environments in a way that satisfies the main hallmarks of human conceptual thought. I shall argue, however, that this view fails to provide convincing grounds for accepting that animals possess concepts. More precisely, I suggest that two important aspects of conceptual thought, viz., concept individuation and the generality constraint, are not satisfied

Do doctors have a moral duty to work in the public health sector? Ethical considerations regarding the social obligations of medicine

El presente artículo discute si los médicos tienen obligaciones sociales, y si de éstas se puede desprender un deber moral de trabajar en el sector público de salud. La discusión se sitúa en el marco del sistema de salud chileno en tanto presenta una desigual distribución de médicos en desmedro del sector público de salud, lo cual confiere especial relevancia al tema en cuestión. Tras evaluar argumentos procedentes de distintas teorías éticas y de la evidencia empírica, se concluye que el médico tiene obligaciones sociales en relación con una repartición justa de los recursos sanitarios, y que la excelencia profesional debiera incorporar el cultivo de virtudes orientadas a una mayor justicia social. Asimismo, se plantea que el deber moral de trabajar en el sector público de salud se sitúa en un plano de obligaciones prima facie que admiten excepciones y la posibilidad de conflicto con otras obliga ciones profesionales.This article discusses whether physicians have social obligations and whether these obligations imply a moral duty to work in the public sector. The article focuses on the context of the Chilean health system, which has an unequal distribution of physicians to the detriment of the public sector, thus making the issue a particularly pressing one. After addressing arguments from different ethical theories and some empirical evidence, the article concludes that the physician has some social obligations in relation to a fair distribution of health resources, and that professional excellence should incorporate cultivating virtues related to social justice. In addition, it is argued that the moral duty to work in the public sector can be placed in the context of prima facie obligations which admit exceptions and allow the poss ibility of conflict with other professional obligations

Do doctors have a moral duty to work in the public health sector? Ethical considerations regarding the social obligations of medicine

Resumen El presente artículo discute si los médicos tienen obligaciones sociales, y si de éstas se puede desprender un deber moral de trabajar en el sector público de salud. La discusión se sitúa en el marco del sistema de salud chileno en tanto presenta una desigual distribución de médicos en desmedro del sector público de salud, lo cual confiere especial relevancia al tema en cuestión. Tras evaluar argumentos procedentes de distintas teorías éticas y de la evidencia empírica, se concluye que el médico tiene obligaciones sociales en relación con una repartición justa de los recursos sanitarios, y que la excelencia profesional debiera incorporar el cultivo de virtudes orientadas a una mayor justicia social. Asimismo, se plantea que el deber moral de trabajar en el sector público de salud se sitúa en un plano de obligaciones prima facie que admiten excepciones y la posibilidad de conflicto con otras obligaciones profesionales