The ethics of treatment during pandemic
It is more or less agreed that during the outbreak of a pandemic or a bioterror attack, those deemed “essential” to the functioning of the society should receive treatment first; but how do we define “essential”?
A U.S. bioethicist says the question of who is “essential” during a flu pandemic must be considered by emergency planners. Nancy Kass, deputy director of Public Health for the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, said truck drivers, communications personnel, and utility workers should be considered essential along with doctors, nurses and firefighters. “When preparing for a severe pandemic flu it is crucial for leaders to recognize that if the public has limited or no access to food, water, sewage systems, fuel and communications, the secondary consequences may cause greater sickness death and social breakdown than the virus itself,” Kass said in news release issued last month by the university.
The report, published in the journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, said it is also important to “communicate to the middle class and the wealthy that it is their responsibility to prepare for self-sufficiency in order to free up scarce supplies and allow first responders to direct their attention toward those too poor or vulnerable to prepare themselves.”
