Welcome to Ethics Consult -- an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We present an ethical dilemma in patient care (hypothetical for this edition); you vote on your decision in the case. Next week, we'll reveal how you all made the call. And stay tuned -- an ethics expert will weigh in next week with an ethical framework to help you learn and prepare.
As pressure from the public and the pandemic's dangers intensify, it's been suggested that COVID-19 vaccine trials include an actual viral challenge component to confirm products' efficacy in preventing infection. Otherwise, decisions to approve and use the vaccine will have to rely primarily on surrogate endpoints such as antibody titers, supplemented by infection rates seen from unknown exposures in the community. Challenge trials would yield solid information more quickly and with fewer participants. But for those who may develop COVID-19 from exposure in a trial, treatment is not universally effective -- hospitalization and death are real risks.
See the results and what an ethics expert has to say.
And check out some of our past Ethics Consult cases: Ethics of Testing Drugs on Down Syndrome Patients; Let Elderly Woman Visit Husband With COVID?; Surprise Finding in Organ Donation Match Test.