Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:16:35.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rethinking the Principle of Justice for Marginalized Populations During COVID-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2022

Abstract

In the face of limited resources during the COVID-19 pandemic response, public health experts and ethicists have sought to apply guiding principles in determining how those resources, including vaccines, should be allocated.

Type
Independent Articles
Copyright
© 2021 The Author(s)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Emanuel, E.J., Persad, G., and Upshur, R., et al., “Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19,” New England Journal of Medicine 382, no. 21 (2020): 20492055; G. Persad, A. Wertheimer, and E.J. Emanuel, “Principles for Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions,” Lancet 373, no. 9661 (2009): 423-431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See Emanuel, E.J., Persad, G., and Upshur, R., et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Bergstrand, K., Mayer, B., Brumback, B., and Zhang, Y., “Assessing the Relationship Between Social Vulnerability and Community Resilience to Hazards,” Social Indicators Research 122, no. 2 (2015): 391409; B. Bolin, “Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Disaster Vulnerability,” in H. Rodríguez, E.L. Quarantelli, and R.R. Dynes, eds., Handbook of Disaster Research (New York: Springer, 2007): 113-129; L.E. Egede, “Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Disparities in Health Care,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 21, no. 6 (2006): 667-669; C.W. Yancy, “COVID-19 and African Americans,” Journal of the American Medical Association 19, no. 323 (2020): 1891-1892; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, available at <https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/racial-ethnic-disparities/index.html> (last visited October 18, 2021).+(last+visited+October+18,+2021).>Google Scholar
Baah, F.O., Teitelman, A.M., and Riegel, B., “Marginalization: Conceptualizing Patient Vulnerabilities in the Framework of Social Determinants of Health-An Integrative Review,” Nursing Inquiry 26, no. 1 (2019): e12268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See L.E. Egede, supra note 3; See C.W. Yancy, supra note 3; See Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, supra note 3.Google Scholar
N. Bharmal, K.P. Derose, M. Felician, and M.M. Weden, “Understanding the Upstream Social Determinants of Health,” RAND Corporation, 2015, available at <https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1096.html> (last visited October 18, 2021).+(last+visited+October+18,+2021).>Google Scholar
See N. Bharmal, K.P. Derose, M. Felician, and M.M. Weden, supra note 6.Google Scholar
M. Bedinger, “After Uproar, Mass. Revises Guidelines on Who Gets an ICU Bed Or Ventilator Amid COVID-19 Surge,” wbur, April 22, 2020, available at <https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/04/20/mass-guidelines-ventilator-covid-coronavirus> (last visited October 18, 2021); A. Wigglesworth, “Institutional Racism, Inequity Fuel High Minority Death Toll from Coronavirus, L.A. Officials Say,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2020, available at <https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-11/institutional-racism-inequity-high-minority-death-toll-coronavirus> (last visited May 1, 2021).+(last+visited+October+18,+2021);+A.+Wigglesworth,+“Institutional+Racism,+Inequity+Fuel+High+Minority+Death+Toll+from+Coronavirus,+L.A.+Officials+Say,”+Los+Angeles+Times,+May+11,+2020,+available+at++(last+visited+May+1,+2021).>Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Crises Standards of Care Planning and Guidance for the COVID-19 Pandemic, available at <https://www.mass.gov/doc/crisis-standards-of-care-planning-guidance-for-the-covid-19-pandemic/download> (last visited October 18, 2021).+(last+visited+October+18,+2021).>Google Scholar
See M. Bedinger, supra note 8; See A. Wigglesworth, supra note 8.Google Scholar
See E.J. Emanuel, G. Persad, R. Upshur, et al., supra note 1; See G. Persad, A. Wertheimer, and E.J. Emanuel, supra note 1.Google Scholar
Cohen, G.A., On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy (New York: Princeton University Press, 2011): at 1.Google Scholar
See E.J. Emanuel, G. Persad, R. Upshur, et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
See G.A. Cohen, supra note 12.Google Scholar
Germain, S., “Will COVID-19 Mark the End of an Egalitarian National Health Service?” European Journal of Risk Regulation (2020): 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salway, S., Mir, G., Turner, D., Ellison, G.T., Carter, L., and Gerrish, K., “Obstacles to ‘Race Equality’ in the English National Health Service: Insights from the Healthcare Commissioning Arena,” Social Science and Medicine 152 (2016): 102110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See S. Germain, supra note 15.Google Scholar
Mill, J.S., Utilitarianism (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897): at 1.Google Scholar
Leider, J.P., DeBruin, D., Reynolds, N., Koch, A., and Seaberg, J., “Ethical Guidance for Disaster Response, Specifically Around Crisis Standards of Care: A Systematic Review,” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 9 (2017): e1e9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See E.J. Emanuel, G. Persad, R. Upshur, et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Karadag, C.O. and Hakan, A.K., “Ethical Dilemmas in Disaster Medicine,” Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal 14, no. 10 (2012): 602612.Google Scholar
Sztajnkrycer, M.D., Madsen, B.E., and Báez, A.A., “Unstable Ethical Plateaus and Disaster Triage,” Emergency Medical Clinics of North America 24, no. 3 (2006): 749768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shea, F.K., “Hurricane Katrina and the Legal and Bioethical Implications of Involuntary Euthanasia as a Component of Disaster Management in Extreme Emergency Situations,” Annals of Health Law 19, no. 1 (2010): 133139.Google ScholarPubMed
See B. Bolin, supra note 3.Google Scholar
Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press, 1999): at 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekmekci, P.E. and Arda, B., “Enhancing John Rawls’s Theory of Justice to Cover Health and Social Determinants of Health,” Acta Bioethica 21, no. 2 (2015): 227236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zack, N., Applicative Justice: A Pragmatic Empirical Approach to Racial Injustice (New York: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2016): at 1.Google Scholar
King, N.M.P., “Justice and Domestic Health Research,” Ethics and Human Research 42, no. 3 (2020): 4142.Google ScholarPubMed
Aristotle, trans. W.D. Ross, Nicomachean Ethics (Raleigh, NC: Alex Catalogue, 2000) at 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See M.D. Sztajnkrycer, B.E. Madsen, and A.A. Báez, supra note 22.Google Scholar
Shiner, R.A., “Review Essay: Deregulation and Distributive Justice,” Journal of Business Ethics 3, no. 3 (1984): 235255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C.P., “Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale,” American Journal of Public Health 90, no. 8 (2000): 12121215; J.J.L. García and M.Z. Sharif, “Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health,” American Journal of Public Health 105, no. 8 (2015): e27-e30.Google Scholar
Charatz-Litt, C., “A Chronicle of Racism: The Effects of the White Medical Community on Black Health,” Journal of the National Medical Association 84, no. 8 (1992): 717725; M. Morse and C. Jones, “How COVID-19 Rationing Frameworks Reinforce White Supremacy,” Praxis Center for Social Justice, June 10, 2020, available at <https://www.kzoo.edu/praxis/rationing-frameworks/> (last visited May 1, 2021).Google ScholarPubMed
See J.J.L. García and M.Z. Sharif, supra note 32.Google Scholar
Dowling, M.K. and Kelly, R.L., “Policy Solutions for Reversing the Color-blind Public Health Response to COVID-19 in the US,” Journal of the American Medical Association 324, no. 3 (2020): 229230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posner, E.A. and Vermeule, A., “Reparations for Slavery and Other Historical Injustices,” Columbia Law Review 103, no. 3 (2003): 689748; R. Brooks, “Post Conflict Justice in the Aftermath of Modern Slavery,” The George Washington International Law Review 46, no. 2 (2014): 243-303.Google Scholar
Washington, H.A., Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Doubleday, 2006) at 1; C.M. Pacheco, S.M. Daley, T. Brown, M. Filippi, K.A. Greiner, and C.M. Daley, “Moving Forward: Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust Between American Indians and Researchers,” American Journal of Public Health 103, no. 12 (2013): 2152-2159; E. Velasco-Mondragon, A. Jimenez, and A.G. Palladino-Davis, et al., “Hispanic Health in the USA: A Scoping Review of the Literature,” Public Health Reviews 37 (2016): 31.Google Scholar
d’Oliveira, A.F., Diniz, S.G., and Schraiber, L.B., “Violence Against Women in Healthcare Institutions: An Emerging Problem,” Lancet 359, no. 9318 (2002): 16811685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hafeez, H., Zeshan, M., and Tahir, M.A., et al., “Health Care Disparities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: A Literature Review,” Cureus 9, no. 4 (2017): e1184; Drescher, J., Schwartz, A., Casoy, F., et al., “The Growing Regulation of Conversion Therapy,” Journal of Medical Regulation 102, no. 2 (2016): 7-12.Google ScholarPubMed
Stroumsa, D., “The State of Transgender Health Care: Policy, Law, and Medical Frameworks,” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 3 (2014): e31e38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stepanikova, I. and Oates, G.R., “Perceived Discrimination and Privilege in Health Care: The Role of Socioeconomic Status and Race,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 52, no. 1 (2017): s86s94; K. Schwartz, “Health Care for the Poor: For Whom, What Care, and Whose Responsibility?” Focus 26, no. 2 (2009): 69-74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See H.A. Washington, supra note 37.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, J.M., Geronimus, A.T., Bound, J., and Dorling, D., “Black Lives Matter: Differential Mortality and the Racial Composition of the U.S. Electorate, 1970-2004,” Social Science and Medicine 167-137 (2015): 193199; D.P. Scharff, K.J. Mathews, and P. Jackson, et al., “More Than Tuskegee: Understanding Mistrust about Research Participation,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 21, no. 3 (2010): 879-897.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escarce, J.J. and Kapur, K., “Access to and Quality of Health Care,” in Tienda, M. and Mitchell, F., eds., Hospanics and the Future of America (Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, 2006): 410446.Google Scholar
See E. Velasco-Mondragon, A. Jimenez, and A.G. Palladino-Davis, et al., supra note 37.Google Scholar
Churchill, W., A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present (New York: City Light Books, 1997) at 1.Google Scholar
See C.M. Pacheco, S.M. Daley, and T. Brown, et al., supra note 37.Google Scholar
Burgess, R.A., Osborne, R.H., and Yongabi, K.A., et al, “The COVID-19 Vaccines Rush: Participatory Community Engagement Matters More Than Ever,” Lancet 397, no. 10268 (2021): 810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See H. Hafeez, M. Zeshan, and M.A. Tahir, et al., supra note 39.Google Scholar
See J. Drescher, A. Schwartz, and F. Casoy, et al., supra note 39.Google Scholar
See J. Drescher, A. Schwartz, and F. Casoy, et al., supra note 39.Google Scholar
See D. Stroumsa, supra note 40.Google Scholar
Han, X., Call, K.T., and Pintor, J.K., et al.,, “Reports of Insurance-Based Discrimination in Health Care and Its Association with Access to Care,” American Journal of Public Health 105, no. 3 (2015): s517s525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See K. Schwartz, supra note 41.Google Scholar
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2018) at 21.Google Scholar
See X. Han, K.T. Call, and J.K. Pintor, et al., supra note 53.Google Scholar
See I. Stepanikova and G.R. Oates, supra note 41.Google Scholar
See C.P. Jones, supra 32.Google Scholar
Bor, J., Cohen, G.H., and Galea, S., “Population Health in An Era of Rising Income Inequality: USA, 1980-2015,” Lancet 389, no. 10077 (2017): 14751490; P.A. Cantu, M.D. Hayward, R.A. Hummer, and C.T. Chiu, “New Estimates of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Life Expectancy with Chronic Morbidity and Functional Loss: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 28, no. 3 (2013): 283-297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meghani, S.H., Byun, E., and Gallagher, R.M., “Time to Take Stock: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review of Analgesic Treatment Disparities for Pain in the United States,” Pain Medicine 13, no. 2 (2012): 150174; D.R. Williams and T.D. Rucker, “Understanding and Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Care,” Health Care Financing Review 21, no. 4 (2000): 75-90; S.E. Gollust, B.A. Cunningham, B.G. Bokhour, et al., “What Causes Racial Health Care Disparities? A Mixed-Methods Study Reveals Variability in How Health Care Providers Perceive Causal Attributions,” Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing 55 (2018): 0046958018762840; D.D. Dunlop, L.M. Manheim, J. Song, and R.W. Chang, “Gender and Ethnic/Racial Disparities in Health Care Utilization Among Older Adults,” The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 57, no. 4 (2002): s221-s233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See D.R. Williams and T.D. Rucker, supra note 60; See D.D. Dunlop, L.M. Manheim, J. Song, and R.W. Chang, supra note 60.Google Scholar
See S.E. Gollust, B.A. Cunningham, B.G. Bokhour, et al., supra note 60.Google Scholar
See S.H. Meghani, E. Byun, and R.M. Gallagher, supra note 60.Google Scholar
Hoffman, K.M., Trawalter, S., Axt, J.R., and Oliver, M.N., “Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment Recommendations, and False Beliefs About Biological Differences Between Blacks and Whites,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, no. 16 (2016): 42964301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, J.A., Patel, V., and Varela, N.A., “Gender Disparities in Health Care,” Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine 79, no. 5 (2012): 555559; K.A. Cameron, J. Song, L.M. Manheim, and D.D. Dunlop, “Gender Disparities in Health and Healthcare Use Among Older Adults,” Journal of Women’s Health 19, no. 9 (2010): 1643-1650; A.S. Bierman, “Sex Matters: Gender Disparities in Quality and Outcomes of Care,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 177, no. 12 (2007): 1520-1521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perelman, J., Fernandes, A., and Mateus, C., “Gender Disparities in Health and Healthcare: Results from the Portuguese National Health Interview Survey,” Cadernos de Saude Publica 28, no. 12 (2012): 23392348; M. Thakral, A.Z. Lacroix, and I.R. Molton, “Sex/Gender Disparities in Health Outcomes of Individuals with Long-Term Disabling Conditions,” Rehabilitation Psychology 64, no. 2 (2019): 221-228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See K.A. Cameron, J. Song, L.M. Manheim, and D.D. Dunlop, supra note 65.Google Scholar
Fowler, R.A., Sabur, N., Li, P., et al., “Sex-and Age-Based Differences in the Delivery and Outcomes of Critical Care,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 177, no. 12 (2007): 15131519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See A.S. Bierman, supra note 65; See R.A. Fowler, N. Sabur, P. Li, et al., supra note 68.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, D.K. and Stokes, C.S., “Income Inequality and Mortality in US Counties: Does Minority Racial Concentration Matter?American Journal of Public Health 92, no. 1 (2002): 99104; S. Shea, J. Lima, and A. Diez-Roux, et al., “Socioeconomic Status and Poor Health Outcome at 10 Years of Follow-Up in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis,” PLoS One 11, no. 11 (2016): e0165651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See D.K. McLaughlin and C.S. Stokes, supra note 70.Google Scholar
Aldridge, R.W., Menezes, D., and Lewer, D., et al., “Causes of Death Among Homeless People: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study of Linked Hospitalisation and Mortality Data in England,” Wellcome Open Research 4 (2019): 49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Anna, L.H., Hansen, M., and Mull, B., et al., “Social Discrimination and Health Care: A Multidimensional Framework of Experiences among a Low-Income Multiethnic Sample,” Social Work in Public Health 33, no. 3 (2018): 187201; T.A. Laveist, N.C. Rolley, and C. Diala, “Prevalence and Patterns of Discrimination among U.S. Health Care Consumers,” International Journal of Health Services 33, no. 2 (2003): 331-344; C.K. Wen, P.L. Hudak, and S.W. Hwang, “Homeless People’s Perceptions of Welcomeness and Unwelcomeness in Healthcare Encounters,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 22, no. 7 (2007): 1011-1017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See C.P. Jones, supra note 32.Google Scholar
Venkataramani, A.S., O’Brien, R., and Tsai, A.C., “Declining Life Expectancy in the United States: The Need for Social Policy as Health Policy,” Journal of the American Medical Association 325, no. 7 (2021): 621622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
See E.J. Emanuel, G. Persad, R. Upshur, et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
See M. Bedinger and A. Wigglesworth, supra note 8.Google Scholar
Ford, C.L. and Airhihenbuwa, C.O., “Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis,” American Journal of Public Health 100, no. 1 (2010): s30s35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vyas, D.A., Eisenstein, L.G., and Jones, D.S., “Hidden in Plain Sight — Reconsidering the Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms,” New England Journal of Medicine 383, no. 9 (2020): 874882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spears, W., Tsoh, J.Y., Potter, M.B., et al., “Use of Community Engagement Strategies to Increase Research Participation in Practice-Based Research Networks,” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 27, no. 6 (2014): 763771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mishkind, C., “Reverse Discrimination/Affirmative Action Litigation Update: Where is it Going?Employee Relations Law Journal 22, no. 3 (1996): 107123.Google Scholar
See H.A. Washington, supra note 37.Google Scholar
See M.K. Dowling and R.L. Kelly, supra note 35.Google Scholar
Richardson, E.T., Malik, M.M., Darity, W.A., et al., “Reparations for Black American Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the U.S. and Their Estimated Impact on SARS-CoV-2 Transmission,” Social Science and Medicine 276 (2021): 113741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, C.J., Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance (New York: Pluto Press, 2019) at 1; C.J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2000) at 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darity, W. and Mullen, A.K., “True Reparations are a National Debt: Localities and Individuals Should Not Foot the Bill and Cannot Build Systemic Remedies Alone,” Roosevelt Institute, February 25, 2020, available at <https://rooseveltinstitute.org/2020/02/25/true-reparations-are-a-national-debt-localities-and-individuals-should-not-foot-the-bill-and-cannot-build-systemic-remedies-alone/> (last visited October 18, 2021).+(last+visited+October+18,+2021).>Google Scholar