Autonomy, a bioethics principle. How does autonomy look in the context of genomic data sharing? “A panel of researchers in Africa says that [little data control] can fuel distrust between researchers and participants, and needs to change.”

Vaccination is hard. “It’s a debate that gets at fundamental questions about individual liberty, bodily autonomy, and communal obligation.” Check out this interview with Keisha Ray, a bioethicist speaking on the obligations for the COVID vaccine.

“Medical experts hoped 2020 would be the last year that the main form of the virus, which can permanently paralyze or cause death, posed a threat….The coronavirus pandemic put a halt to that progress.”

“Preventing socioeconomic disparities in the vaccination process was always going to be an uphill battle, but policy changes in response to the sluggish rollout have generally prioritized speed over equity.”

How can we look to the past to provide insight into our current society? In this piece by Jenny Gross, we take a look at historical mass vaccination campaigns and how past questions can now lead to future answers.

Do we have an ethical responsibility to communicate COVID-19 diagnoses for the purpose of collective health security? This recent piece explores why some may feel motivated to keep their own diagnoses a secret and what effect that may have on the pandemic.

“As the Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the racial inequalities in the United States’ health care system, entrepreneurs in genetic research are speaking out about the importance of encouraging community outreach to combat those disparities and increasing diversity inside their own industry.”

Although facial recognition software proves to be useful in certain scenarios, what happens if this technology falls into the wrong hands. Researchers must recognize that unethical facial recognition practice is fundamentally dangerous.

“It’s not by dint of circumstance or luck that predominantly white counties — by and large — have not had as many diagnoses as compared to more diverse counties,” he says. “There’s a systemic issue that’s underlying all of this.”