This chapter develops schematic remarks on different aspects of the ethics of risk. First, it outlines some problems in the ethics of chance, paying particular attention to the prevention paradox. It turns to the ethics of certainty, sketching ongoing debates over the precautionary principle in public health policy and how they relate to the evidence-based medicine movement. It also explains emerging issues around concepts of risk and precaution in epidemiology that are linked to the rise of Big Data analytics. The chapter addresses problems concerning the uses of research findings by policymakers rather than their generation by epidemiologists. It points out how problems of chance and certainty complicate the task of balancing between individual interests and the collective good.
Big Data: transforming drug development and health policy decision making