Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethical and Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responses in Communalistic Resource-Limited Africa – Eunice Kamaara & Ross Upshur
03/22/21 • 17 min
In this episode of JBI Dialogues, Professor Ross Upshur, one of the co editors of the journal's COVID-19 symposium, talks with Professor Eunice Kamaara about her paper "Gambling with COVID-19 makes more sense: ethical and practical challenges in COVID-19 responses in communalistic resource-limited Africa, co-authored with Dr David Nderitu. Eunice is Professor of African Christian Ethics at Moi University in Kenya with a doctorate in African Christian ethics and a Master's degree in international health research ethics. Ross is a physician and bioethicist and heads the division of clinical public health at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Article abstract: Informed by evidence from past studies and experiences with epidemics, an intervention combining quarantine, lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, and washing of hands has been adopted as “international best practice” in COVID-19 response. With massive total lockdowns complemented by electronic surveillance, China successfully controlled the pandemic in country within a few months. But would this work for Africa and other communalistic resource-poor settings where social togetherness translates to effective sharing of basic needs? What ethical and practical challenges would this pose? How would communalism be translated in special contexts to be useful in contributing to the ultimate common good? This paper uses examples from the current situation of COVID-19 in Kenya to address these questions.
Links
- The complete Journal of Bioethical Inquiry COVID-19 symposium
- Direct link to the #Free2Read articles discussed in the episode
- Gambling with COVID-19 makes more sense: ethical and practical challenges in COVID-19 responses in communalistic resource-limited Africa, by David Nderitu and Eunice Kamaara
- Learning Lessons from COVID-19 Requires Recognizing Moral Failures, by Maxwell Smith and Ross Upshur
In this episode of JBI Dialogues, Professor Ross Upshur, one of the co editors of the journal's COVID-19 symposium, talks with Professor Eunice Kamaara about her paper "Gambling with COVID-19 makes more sense: ethical and practical challenges in COVID-19 responses in communalistic resource-limited Africa, co-authored with Dr David Nderitu. Eunice is Professor of African Christian Ethics at Moi University in Kenya with a doctorate in African Christian ethics and a Master's degree in international health research ethics. Ross is a physician and bioethicist and heads the division of clinical public health at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Article abstract: Informed by evidence from past studies and experiences with epidemics, an intervention combining quarantine, lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, and washing of hands has been adopted as “international best practice” in COVID-19 response. With massive total lockdowns complemented by electronic surveillance, China successfully controlled the pandemic in country within a few months. But would this work for Africa and other communalistic resource-poor settings where social togetherness translates to effective sharing of basic needs? What ethical and practical challenges would this pose? How would communalism be translated in special contexts to be useful in contributing to the ultimate common good? This paper uses examples from the current situation of COVID-19 in Kenya to address these questions.
Links
- The complete Journal of Bioethical Inquiry COVID-19 symposium
- Direct link to the #Free2Read articles discussed in the episode
- Gambling with COVID-19 makes more sense: ethical and practical challenges in COVID-19 responses in communalistic resource-limited Africa, by David Nderitu and Eunice Kamaara
- Learning Lessons from COVID-19 Requires Recognizing Moral Failures, by Maxwell Smith and Ross Upshur
Previous Episode
Science at warp speed: Medical research during the COVID-19 pandemic – Melanie Gentgall
In this episode of JBI Dialogues we welcome one of the authors of an article in the journal’s new symposium on the social and ethical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Melanie Gentgall is founding CEO of PRAXIS Australia, an independent not-for-profit that was created to promote excellence in research and research ethics review, design and conduct in Australia and internationally.
Together with Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, and Cameron Stewart, Melanie co-authored the article “Science at Warp Speed: Medical Research, Publication, and Translation During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. Here she talks about that work and recent developments, including new announcements made about the promise of multiple experimental COVID-19 vaccines.
Article abstract: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid growth in research focused on developing vaccines and therapies. In this context, the need for speed is taken for granted, and the scientific process has adapted to accommodate this. On the surface, attempts to speed up the research enterprise appear to be a good thing. It is, however, important to consider what, if anything, might be lost when biomedical innovation is sped up. In this article we use the case of a study recently retracted from the Lancet to illustrate the potential risks and harms associated with speeding up science. We then argue that, with appropriate governance mechanisms in place (and adequately resourced), it should be quite possible to both speed up science and remain attentive to scientific quality and integrity.
Links / resources
- The complete collection of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry COVID-19 symposium articles - Part 1 and Part 2
- Direct link to the #Free2Read article discussed in the episode: Science at Warp Speed: Medical Research, Publication, and Translation During the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Wendy Lipworth, Melanie Gentgall, Ian Kerridge, and Cameron Stewart
- Therapeutic Goods Administration statement, 18 November 2020, COVID-19 vaccine provisional determinations
Image: Aldon Scott McLeod from FreeImages
Next Episode
Institutional Racism, Whiteness, and Bioethics: symposium co-editor Chris Mayes
In this episode of JBI Dialogues, Dr Christopher Mayes talks about the journal's new symposium Institutional Racism, Whiteness, and the Role of Bioethics. Chris is a Research Fellow in the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University and a Research-Affiliate in Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with disciplinary backgrounds in sociology and philosophy. He co-edited the Institutional Racism, Whiteness, and Bioethics symposium with Professor Yin Paradies and Dr Amanuel Elias. Yin is Professor of Race Relations and Amanual is a Research Fellow, also in the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, Australia.
Lead essay extract: Institutional racism can be defined as differential access to power, resources, and opportunities by race that further entrenches privilege and oppression (Paradies 2016). Along with similar concepts such as systemic, structural, cultural, and societal racism, this form of racism profoundly shapes almost all aspects of our lives, including health and healthcare (Williams, Lawrence, and Davis 2019). Yet, racism more broadly and institutional racism in particular has been a neglected subject in bioethical discourse and scholarship (Danis, Wilson, and White 2016). Bioethics has the potential to make important contributions to anti-racist programmes and strategies addressing institutional racism, yet as scholars have argued, the “whiteness” of bioethics undermines its capacity to attend to institutionalized forms of racism (Mayes 2020; Russell 2016; Danis, Wilson, and White 2016). ... This symposium brings together scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines to examine how racism has been institutionalized in healthcare, how whiteness manifests in healthcare, and what bioethics can contribute towards anti-racism. In October 2019, we invited researchers to consider the following questions:
- What are the historical and material processes that contributed to the institutionalization of racism in medicine and healthcare settings?
- What role can Indigenous knowledges play in de-centering whiteness and addressing racism?
- Does bioethics have a role in addressing racism or is it too entangled with histories of racism and whiteness?
The articles in this issue respond to these questions and articulate the affective dimension of race in clinical spaces, the economic and social costs of racialized health inequalities, the continuing effects of colonialism and complicity of bioethics in institutional racism.
Links / resources
- The complete Journal of Bioethical Inquiry symposium Institutional Racism, Whiteness and Bioethics
- Direct links to articles mentioned in the episode
- Symposium Lead Essay: Institutional Racism, Whiteness, and the Role of Critical Bioethics, by Christopher Mayes, Yin Paradies, Amanuel Elias
- White Medicine, White Ethics: On the Historical Formation of Racism in Australian Healthcare, by Christopher Mayes (in the Journal of Australian Studies)
- Black bodies and Bioethics: Debunking Mythologies of Benevolence and Beneficence in Contemporary Indigenous Health Research in Colonial Australia, by Chelsea J. Bond, David Singh & Sissy Tyson
- Bioethicists Should Be Helping Scientists Think About Race, by Camisha Russell
JBI Dialogues - Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethical and Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responses in Communalistic Resource-Limited Africa – Eunice Kamaara & Ross Upshur
Transcript
[Music]
EdwinaHello and
Edwinawelcome to JBI Dialogues. My name's Edwina Light and I'm the digital content editor at the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. JBI dialogues is presented as a space to connect academic professional and community voices in conversation about the journal's published research and up and coming issues and practices in bioethics.
EdwinaIf you like this episode you’ll love
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