Join the Discussion:Re-opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?

The Hastings Center will host “Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?,” an online discussion of the ethical issues related to easing Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in the United States. As the nation weighs when and how to re-open the economy, policymakers will face trade-offs between lives saved and economic well-being.  As we build a new normal, there will also likely be trade-offs between civil liberties and public health. The webinar will feature Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Hastings Center fellow; Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; and Mildred Z. Solomon, President of The Hastings Center.  The webinar will take place on Tuesday, April 21, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Learn more and register here.  

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Should Institutions Disclose the Names of Employees With COVID-19?

That question was posed in a case study just published in the Hastings Center Report. In the hypothetical case, a university sends a memo to faculty, students, and staff to tell them that a staff member tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19. The individual is at home in isolation and doing well clinically. The university has identified members of the university community who may have been in close contact with this individual and are working to notify them. Further, the individual’s local health department has a protocol for identifying people who have been in direct contact with anyone testing positive for Covid-19 so that they can self-quarantine and watch for symptoms. Should the university identify the employee by name? Would doing so violate the person’s confidentiality, or would it be essential to maximizing public health and slowing the spread of this deadly virus? Read the article for free.
 

In the Media: Responding to Covid-19 in Nursing Homes, Making "Gut-Wrenching" Decisions

Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon discussed nursing homes as hotspots for Covid-19 and how they should respond, in an interview with WWL First News with Tommy Tucker, a radio show in New Orleans. She cited the importance of testing nursing home residents for the coronavirus and separating those who test positive from those who test negative. Listen to the interview. In an interview with The Guardian, Solomon talked about the “gut-wrenching” decisions hospitals are making about which patients get ventilators and other health care. “Triage will save lives,” she said. Read the article. The Atlantic asked Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger about concerns by people with disabilities that they will be denied life-saving treatment for Covid-19 because of bias against them – conscious or not-- by doctors, nurses, and health care administrators. “We do make snap judgments about whose life seems better than another person’s life,” she said. “Allocation protocols must guard against that.” Read the article. For more Hastings Center media coverage, visit In the Media: Hastings Responds to Covid-19.