An FDA Anesthesiology and Respiratory Therapy Devices advisory panel met this week to discuss racial and skin-pigmentation bias in pulse oximeter devices. This comes in the wake of research demonstrating that inaccurate blood oxygen readings may have contributed to the greater number of Covid-19 deaths in minority patients compared to white patients.
View More FDA Advisory Panel Asks for Improvements in Pulse Oximeters
As part of the Biden administration’s most recent initiatives to combat the rise of COVID-19 cases, four at-home test kits have been offered to each household in the U.S., but the conditions of this offer are yet another example of a consistent pattern of inequities during the pandemic.
View More The Inequitable Offer of 4 COVID Tests Per Household
With the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, much uncertainty has been injected into the conversation about booster vaccines — from questions about who should get them and when, to the matter of how using vaccine doses as boosters in the U.S. can prevent lower-income countries from receiving first dose supplies.
View More Omicron Variant Causes Public Health Officials to Rethink Vaccine Booster Recommendations
Some people in the U.S. are now eligible for a booster COVID vaccine, but is it ethical to get a third dose while vast swaths of the globe have yet to receive their first?
View More The Third Dose Debate
As the Delta COVID variant surges across the nation, should vaccinated individuals have priority access to the dwindling supply of empty ICU beds?
View More Prioritizing COVID-19 ICU Beds
The CDC and FDA have recommended a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over concerns about rare blood-clotting side effects, but given its wide-reaching consequences, was this an ethical decision?
View More A Responsible Rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccines
The idea of vaccine “passports” is being considered by a number of countries (including the U.S.) to regulate travel, recreational gatherings, and more, but is the concept ethically permissible when the general population doesn’t have equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine?
View More The Ethics of Vaccine Passports
Some minorities have understandable fears about the COVID-19 vaccine—how can those fears be assuaged, and whose responsibility is it to do so?
View More When Science Fails Minorities: Complications with the COVID-19 Vaccine
Facebook is cracking down on the spread of misinformation about vaccines – is this a violation of free speech or a valid effort to protect the public?
View More Facebook’s Role in Mitigating Vaccine Misinformation
10/19/2020 As flu season nears with an expected spike in cases, many companies are rushing to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine as soon…
View More Who Should Get a New COVID-19 Vaccine First?