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Currents in Contemporary Ethics: Avian Influenza and the Failure of Public Rationing Discussions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Barry DeCoster
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Extract

The flu has an interesting history with respect to health care rationing in the United States. Consider that just about two years ago, the American public faced a shortage of influenza vaccine. Dire predictions were made about how many people might perish, and rationing protocols were created. However, many of the rationing protocols were ignored. Luckily, that flu season did not result in the horrible fatalities that were predicted. For these reasons, problems of health care rationing around issues of the flu were postponed, rather than resolved.

Over the last year, the public has focused its anxious attention on the possible avian influenza pandemic. Last week I noticed that at least once each day I heard mention in some discussion or another of the threat of this disease becoming easily transmissible from human to human.

Type
JLME Column
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , Fall 2006 , pp. 620 - 623
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

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References

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