75 - The Vital Ethical Contexts of Coronavirus

There is a lot of data and reporting out there about the COVID 19 pandemic. How should we make sense of that data? Do the media narratives misrepresent or mislead us as to the true risks associated with the disease? Have governments mishandled the response? Can they be morally blamed for what they have done. These are the questions I discuss with my guest on today's show: David Shaw. David is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Basel and an Assistant Professor at the Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht University. We discuss some recent writing David has been doing on the Journal of Medical Ethics blog about the coronavirus crisis.

You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Stitcher and a range of other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here).


 Show Notes Topics discussed include...

• Why is it important to keep death rates and other data in context?

• Is media reporting of deaths misleading?

• Why do the media discuss 'soaring' death rates and 'grim' statistics?

• Are we ignoring the unintended health consequences of COVID 19?

• Should we take the economic costs more seriously given the link between poverty/inequality and health outcomes?

• Did the UK government mishandle the response to the crisis? Are they blameworthy for what they did?

• Is it fair to criticise governments for their handling of the crisis?

• Is it okay for governments to experiment on their populations in response to the crisis?

Relevant Links

• David's Profile Page at the University of Basel

• 'The Vital Contexts of Coronavirus' by David

• 'The Slow Dragon and the Dim Sloth: What can the world learn from coronavirus responses in Italy and the UK?' by Marcello Ienca and David Shaw

• 'Don't let the ethics of despair infect the ICU' by David Shaw, Dan Harvey and Dale Gardiner

• 'Deaths in New York City Are More Than Double the Usual Total' in the NYT (getting the context right?!)

• Preliminary results from German Antibody tests in one town: 14% of the population infected

• Do Death Rates Go Down in a Recession?

• The Sun's Good Friday headline

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