During public heath emergencies - like the COVID-19 pandemic - when no known preventive or effective treatment exists, researchers want to quickly start conducting studies with humans to find a vaccine and therapeutic treatments that are safe and effective, prompting experts to warn about the importance of maintaining ethical standards.
Rutgers School of Public Health associate professor, Michael K. Gusmano, PhD, is available to discuss the ethics behind developing COVID-19 treatment and vaccination.
“In the rush to find a COVID-19 vaccine and one or more drugs to treat the deadly disease, concerns are being raised that ethical standards for conducting human clinical trials, and the evidentiary standards for determining whether interventions are safe and effective, might be loosened too much,” said Gusmano, who is also a Hastings Center Scholar.
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