Gene Drives and Genome Modification in Nonhuman Animals: A Concern for Informed Consent?

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
JOANNA SMOLENSKI
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Genome Modification ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Experimental Treatments ◽  
Gene Drives

Abstract:In recent years, CRISPR-Cas9 has become one of the simplest and most cost-effective genetic engineering techniques among scientists and researchers aiming to alter genes in organisms. As Zika came to the fore as a global health crisis, many suggested the use of CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives in mosquitoes as a possible means to prevent the transmission of the virus without the need to subject humans to risky experimental treatments. This paper suggests that using gene drives or other forms of genome editing in nonhumans (like mosquitos) for the purposes of disease prevention raises important issues about informed consent. Additionally, it examines the consequences this line of inquiry could have for the use of gene drives as a tool in public health and suggests that the guidance offered by informed consent protocols could help the scientific community deploy gene drives in a way that ensures that ongoing research is consistent with our ethical priorities.

Risking Lives to Save Others During COVID-19: A Focus on Public Health Care Workers in Bangladesh and Egypt

2021 ◽  
pp. 002073142110637
Author(s):  
Shahjahan Bhuiyan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Care Workers

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been spreading around the world, causing a major public health crisis that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Street-level bureaucrats­—health workers, teachers, street cleaners, police officers­, and so forth—are at the forefront in fighting against the pandemic. Of these, public health care workers, due to the nature of their involvement, should know and understand why they are risking their lives to save others during this pandemic. Based on the preliminary data gleaned from interviews with public health care workers in Bangladesh and Egypt, this ongoing research suggests they are risking their lives for reasons such as altruistic behavior, service to profession, adherence to bureaucratic accountability, and a desire to help mankind. The findings contribute to the existing literature about street-level bureaucratic behavior in atypical times such as these of the pandemic. This study is unique in that it comprehends that public health care workers of two culturally and geographically distinct countries are risking their lives for the same public-spirited cause.

scholarly journals Policy liberalism and source of news predict pandemic-related health behaviors and trust in the scientific community

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252670
Author(s):  
Madeleine Reinhardt ◽  
Matthew B. Findley ◽  
Renee A. Countryman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
News Media ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Measures

In March of 2020, the United States was confronted with a major public health crisis caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This study aimed to identify what factors influence adherence to recently implemented public health measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing, trust of scientific organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on information pertaining to the pandemic, and level of perceived risk. Data were collected from June 30, 2020 to July 22, 2020 on 951 adult residents of the United States using an online survey through Microsoft Forms. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the strongest predictors for compliance to pandemic-related health measures, trust in the scientific community, and perceived risk. Results showed that the strongest predictor of all variables of interest was degree of policy liberalism. Additionally, participants who consumed more conservative news media conformed less to the pandemic health guidelines and had less trust in the scientific community. Degree of policy liberalism was found to have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between gender and conformity to pandemic-related health behaviors. These findings have concerning implications that factors like degree of policy liberalism and source of news are more influential in predicting adherence to life-saving health measures than established risk factors like pre-existing health conditions.

Disrupting the COVID-19 Misinfodemic With Network Interventions: Network Solutions for Network Problems

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 514-519
Author(s):  
Lindsay E. Young ◽  
Emily Sidnam-Mauch ◽  
Marlon Twyman ◽  
Liyuan Wang ◽  
Jackie Jingyi Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Network Problems ◽  
Social Network Intervention ◽  
Network Intervention

Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, a highly troublesome influx of viral misinformation threatens to exacerbate the crisis through its deleterious effects on public health outcomes and health behavior decisions. This “misinfodemic” has ignited a surge of ongoing research aimed at characterizing its content, identifying its sources, and documenting its effects. Noticeably absent as of yet is a cogent strategy to disrupt misinformation. We start with the premise that the diffusion and persistence of COVID-19 misinformation are networked phenomena that require network interventions. To this end, we propose five classes of social network intervention to provide a roadmap of opportunities for disrupting misinformation dynamics during a global health crisis. Collectively, these strategies identify five distinct yet interdependent features of information environments that present viable opportunities for interventions.

scholarly journals Making medications stick: improving medication adherence by highlighting the personal health costs of non-compliance

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
JON M. JACHIMOWICZ ◽  
JOE J. GLADSTONE ◽  
DAN BERRY ◽  
CHARLOTTE L. KIRKDALE ◽  
TRACEY THORNLEY ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Medication Adherence ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Prescription Medication ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Health Costs ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Comparison Groups

AbstractPoor compliance of prescription medication is an ongoing public health crisis. Nearly half of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, harming their own health while also increasing public health care costs. Despite these detrimental consequences, prior research has struggled to establish cost-effective and scalable interventions to improve adherence rates. We suggest that one reason for the limited success of prior interventions is that they make the personal health costs of non-adherence insufficiently prominent, while a higher saliency of these costs may motivate patients to adhere more. In the current research, we test whether an intervention that makes the personal health costs of non-compliance more salient for patients will increase their medication adherence. To do so, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with 16,191 patients across 278 UK pharmacies over a 9-month time period and manipulated the perceived consequences of medication non-adherence. We find that patients who received a treatment highlighting the personal health costs of non-compliance were significantly more likely to adhere to their medication than three comparison groups (odds ratio = 1.84, 95% confidence interval = 1.37–2.47). Shifting patients’ focus to the personal health costs of non-compliance may thus offer a potentially cost-effective and scalable approach to improving medication adherence.

scholarly journals 新冠瘟疫蔓延時的「知情同意」原則

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
Ellen Y. ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Middle Point ◽  
Health Crisis

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文就此次爆發的心冠病毒疸疫，探討中國在對抗疫情過程中所帶出的幾個倫理議題，尤其是如何把握傳染病突發處理中「知情同意」的倫理原則。根據世界衛生組織的規定，「知情同意」意指有行為能力的個體根據充分的相關信息採取行動的主動權，這個行動不能受到強制或謗導。然而在疫情突發時期，知情同意所涵蓋的諸如知情、能力、自願等原則在公共衛生受到挑戰之時也會受到一定的限制。如何在個人自主、個人權利與公共衛生、公共利益之間找到平衡？如何在最低限度的道德言語中找到共同的道德原則，這是疫情中值得探討的倫理議題。本文從世衛《傳染爆發倫理問題指南》出發，對其具 體的倫理原則進行分析，並將其原則放在此次爆發的疫情情境中加以説明，刨析這些原則在具體操作上的困境。作者最後試圖從儒家倫理學的角度闡述如何在東方的「家長主義式干預」和西方的「個體自主式不干預」中找到平衡點，如何在保護公民權利與保證公共衛生中找到平衡點。This paper addresses the question of informed consent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed consent is “the process in which a competent individual authorizes a course of action based on sufficient relevant information, without coercion or undue inducement” (WHO, 2016). However, informed consent based on disclosure, capacity, and voluntariness has been seriously challenged during the public health crisis we are facing today. How should we resolve the ethical conflict between individual autonomy and individual rights and public health and public good? How should we attain social consensus through “the minimum grammar” of common morality? In this paper, I first introduce the WHO’s “Guidance for Managing Ethical Issues in Infectious Disease Outbreaks” (2016) and its seven basic principles: justice, beneficence, utility, respect for persons, liberty, reciprocity, and solidarity. I then explain how those principles could face challenges in implementation during the pandemic, as there will always be tensions between individual rights, state interference, and health paternalism. Finally, I explore from a Confucian perspective the possibility of seeking the “middle point” between paternalism and individual autonomy, and between civil liberties and public health.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 26 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Twenty-Five Years of Research on Violence in Digital Games and Aggression

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Elson ◽  
Christopher J. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
General Public ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Analytical Research ◽  
The Impact

Violence in digital games has been a source of controversy in the scientific community and general public. Over two decades of research have examined this issue. However, much of this research has been undercut by methodological limitations and ideological statements that go beyond what scientific evidence could support. We review 25 years of experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal, and meta-analytical research in this field. Empirical evidence regarding the impact of violent digital games on player aggression is, at best, mixed and cannot support unambiguous claims that such games are harmful or represent a public health crisis. Rather, indulgence in such claims risked damage to the credibility of games effects research, credibility which can only be restored through better empirical research and more conservative and careful statements by scholars. We encourage the field to engage in a responsible dialog and constructive debate that could continue to be enriching and invigorating.

Eating NAFTA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyshia Gálvez
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Food System ◽  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
The World

In the two decades since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, Mexico has seen an epidemic of diet-related illness. While globalization has been associated with an increase in chronic disease around the world, in Mexico, the speed and scope of the rise has been called a public health emergency. The shift in Mexican foodways is happening at a moment when the country’s ancestral cuisine is now more popular and appreciated around the world than ever. What does it mean for their health and well-being when many Mexicans eat fewer tortillas and more instant noodles, while global elites demand tacos made with handmade corn tortillas? This book examines the transformation of the Mexican food system since NAFTA and how it has made it harder for people to eat as they once did. The book contextualizes NAFTA within Mexico’s approach to economic development since the Revolution, noticing the role envisioned for rural and low-income people in the path to modernization. Examination of anti-poverty and public health policies in Mexico reveal how it has become easier for people to consume processed foods and beverages, even when to do so can be harmful to health. The book critiques Mexico’s strategy for addressing the public health crisis generated by rising rates of chronic disease for blaming the dietary habits of those whose lives have been upended by the economic and political shifts of NAFTA.

Molecular characterization of SARS-CoV-2

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miribane Dërmaku-Sopjani ◽  
Mentor Sopjani
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Virus Genome ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Therapeutic Drugs ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
New Public ◽  
And Function

Abstract:: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a new public health crisis threatening the world. This pandemic disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus has been reported to be originated in bats and by yet unknown intermediary animals were transmitted to humans in China 2019. The SARSCoV- 2 spreads faster than its two ancestors the SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV) but has reduced fatality. At present, the SARS-CoV-2 has caused about a 1.16 million of deaths with more than 43.4 million confirmed cases worldwide, resulting in a serious threat to public health globally with yet uncertain impact. The disease is transmitted by inhalation or direct contact with an infected person. The incubation period ranges from 1 to 14 days. COVID-19 is accompanied by various symptoms, including cough, fatigue. In most people the disease is mild, but in some other people, such as in elderly and people with chronic diseases, it may progress from pneumonia to a multi-organ dysfunction. Many people are reported asymptomatic. The virus genome is sequenced, but new variants are reported. Numerous biochemical aspects of its structure and function are revealed. To date, no clinically approved vaccines and/or specific therapeutic drugs are available to prevent or treat the COVID-19. However, there are reported intensive researches on the SARSCoV- 2 to potentially identify vaccines and/or drug targets, which may help to overcome the disease. In this review, we discuss recent advances in understanding the molecular structure of SARS-CoV-2 and its biochemical characteristics.

Anticipating on a post covid-19 world and the pivotal role of science and technology

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Khan ◽  
Tusha Sharma ◽  
Basu Dev Banerjee ◽  
Scotty Branch ◽  
Shea Harrelson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Outbreak Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Future Outbreak

: Currently, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has transformed into a severe public health crisis and wreaking havoc worldwide. The ongoing pandemic has exposed the public healthcare system's weaknesses and highlighted the urgent need for investments in scientific programs and policies. A comprehensive program utilizing the science and technologydriven strategies combined with well-resourced healthcare organizations appears to be essential for current and future outbreak management.

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