| dc.description.abstract | Emerging epidemics, including Covid-19, SARs, Ebola, MERS, have posed a dilema on decisions taken in health
research and public health interventions. It has been difficult to draw a line between research and public health
interventions, paticularly vaccination. Ideally, the development and administration of safe and effective diagnostic,
therapeutic and vaccine products depend on clinical research. Clinical research should be rigorous, of scientific and
societal value, and executed with the highest standards of scientific validity. In this case, validity includes blind
treatment assignment, randomization and controls. During development of vaccines, considerations have to be made
on the safety and health of the public, patients, essential workers, and healthcare professionals. However, in
emerging epidemics (such as the Covid-19 pandemic), implementation programes for public health are hybrids of
research and interventions. This raises questions of validity and ethical obligations in the research processes, and in
the implementation of public health programmes. Since it is difficult to ascertain the techniques or combination of
tools and approaches that will guarantee that epidemics would neither resurge nor spread in the future, it is important
to evaluate ethical issues for future control of epidemics and public health. Key among the issues is whether our
current conventions of research such as regulations, guidelines and institutional ethical reviews adequately address
ethical issues in emerging epidemics and what we need to change to address uncertainities faced in epidemics now
and in future. As the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, there may be need for a global health treaty for emergencies. | en_US |
