One Person at a Time

I have a soft spot for public health. True, I’ve been a family physician for 32 years, and have touched many people’s lives, but decisions made by public health practitioners have an outsized impact on health.

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ETHICAL VACCINES: Ready for a shot in the arm?

With millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses already plunged into American arms and hundreds of million more doses on the way, can healthcare professionals confidently receive the vaccines themselves and also recommend them for patients?

While responses to this question often involve important emotional factors that need to be addressed, this article focuses on three rational considerations: safety, efficacy and ethics.

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Countering COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

Dr. Jeff Barrows joins Dr. Mike Chupp on today’s CMDA Matters podcast to discuss the safety, efficacy and ethics of the COVID-19 vaccine in the wake of vaccine misinformation.

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Vaccines and Conscience Protection

It has been over a year since the first diagnosis of COVID-19 in the United States. Due to this pandemic’s effects, our society has experienced limitations in personal freedoms to a level we have never known. Social interactions and work environments have been changed by social distancing, masks, hospital and nursing home visitation restrictions and working from home. Freedom of movement about our communities and the nation has been limited by “stay-at-home orders” and mass travel restrictions. The availability of vaccines provides a sliver of hope but also raises many questions. Issues our society must address include prioritizing equitable vaccine distribution and the potential for coercive mandates on vaccine use.

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Navigating Vaccine Ethics

CMDA Senior Vice President for Bioethics and Public Policy Dr. Jeff Barrows and I recently wrote a piece for The Public Discourse, “Is Receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Ethical?” that suggested principles to consider as we navigate ethical issues related to COVID-19 vaccines. I’ve included brief highlights below; more from the original article and also new observations will be published in an upcoming edition of CMDA Today (previously known as Today’s Christian Doctor).

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Physician Support for Ethical Vaccines

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our society has had to adapt to unprecedented restrictions and limitations. During this trying time, it has been difficult to find points of optimism. The rapid development of vaccine candidates utilizing varied techniques remains encouraging.

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Tara Sander Lee: COVID-19 Vaccine Update

Dr. Tara Sander Lee joins Dr. Mike Chupp and co-host Dr. Jeff Barrows on today’s CMDA Matters podcast to discuss how COVID-19 vaccinations are being developed and fetal cell line research.

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