What Could “Fair Allocation” during the Covid‐19 Crisis Possibly Mean in Sub‐Saharan Africa

The Covid‐19 pandemic has sparked rapid and voluminous production of bioethics commentary in popular media and academic publications. Many of the discussions are new twists on an old theme: how to fairly allocate scarce medical resources, such as ventilators and intensive care unit beds. In this essay, we do not add another allocation scheme to the growing pile, partly out of appreciation that such schemes should be products of inclusive and transparent community engagement and partly out of recognition of their limited utility for physicians working in the field. Instead, we make the more modest claim that context matters when making such decisions and, more specifically, that recommendations from high‐income countries about fair allocation during Covid‐19 should not be cut and pasted into low‐income settings. We offer a few examples of why seemingly universal, well‐intentioned ethical recommendations could have adverse consequences if unreflectively applied in sub‐Saharan Africa

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Bioethics · Context (archaeology) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Disease · Economics · Field (mathematics) · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Outbreak · Pandemic · Political science · Public relations · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) · Sociology · Theme (computing) · Unit (ring theory) · Computer Science · Disaster Response and Management · Global Maternal and Child Health · Healthcare Systems and Challenges · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology

• What Could “Fair Allocation” during the Covid‐19 Crisis Possibly Mean in Sub‐Saharan Africa

  Open Access•Keymanthri Moodley, Laurent Ravez et al.•The Hastings Center Report•2020

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  Open Access•Iestyn Williams, Beverley M Essue et al.•BMJ Global Health•2021

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• Early estimates of the indirect effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries

  Open Access•Timothy Roberton, Emily D Carter et al.•The Lancet Global Health•2020

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  Open Access•Richard Cash, Richard A Cash et al.•The Lancet•2020

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  Open Access•Lawrence O Gostin, Eric Friedman et al.•The Hastings Center Report•2020

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• What Could “Fair Allocation” during the Covid‐19 Crisis Possibly Mean in Sub‐Saharan Africa

  Open Access•Keymanthri Moodley, Laurent Ravez et al.•The Hastings Center Report•2020

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• An Ethics Framework for Public Health

  Norman Ka, Nancy E Kass•American Journal of Public Health•2001

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