In the Media: Covid-19 Is "Testing Our Morals," Facing a Second Wave
Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon was a guest on Minnesota Public Radio’s “News with Kerri Miller,” discussing the ways in which Covid-19 is testing our morals. How, for example, do we weigh the economic and health risks in determining when and how to ease restrictions? “I don’t think we should frame it as the economy versus our health; in fact, they’re intertwined,” she said, going on to call for focusing on the testing and contact tracing needed to re-open safely. Listen to the show.
In an interview with USA Today, Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger said that America is not ready for a second wave of Covid-19 “because we were not prepared for the first.” While the pandemic has created wrenching dilemmas for leaders, she said daily personal decisions such as social distancing also fall within the ethical prism, and selfishness may empower pandemic to take more lives. “It’s about the moral choices each and every one of us make,” she said. “I hope we will in every way possible have a stronger sense of who our neighbor is, who our fellow citizen is.” Read the article.
Berlinger was also part of a virtual roundtable on "NJ Spotlight," a TV show that explored a range of medical ethics issues during Covid-19. Berlinger observed that many areas are moving from the emergency phase of the pandemic to what she called the chronic phase. “It’s not over once an area has passed its peak,” she said. “We’re having a crash course in public health ethics. We’re thinking about individual patients, public health needs, and how inequalities shape health outcomes.” Watch the show.
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