Journal Article

Disability, Ethics, and Health Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Burke, Teresa Blankmeyer, Sabatello, Maya, Appelbaum, Paul S., McDonald, Katherine E.

2020

Overview

This article considers key ethical, legal, and medical dilemmas arising for people with disabilities in the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the limited application of existing frameworks of emergency planning with and for people with disabilities in the COVID-19 pandemic, explore key concerns and issues affecting the health care of people with disabilities (i.e., access to information and clinician–patient communication, nondiscrimination and reasonable accommodations, and rationing of medical goods), and indicate possible solutions. Finally, we suggest clinical and public health policy measures to ensure that people with disabilities are included in the planning of future pandemic-related efforts. The devastation evoked by the COVID-19 pandemic raises challenging dilemmas in bioethics. It also speaks to social justice issues that have plagued historically marginalized communities in the United States. Responses to the pandemic must be bound by legal standards, principles of distributive justice, and societal norms of protecting vulnerable populations—core commitments of public health—to ensure that inequities are not exacerbated, and should provide a pathway for improvements to ensure equitable access and treatment in the future.

• Publisher: American Public Health Association
• Subject: Access / Access to information / AJPH Law & Ethics / At risk populations / Betacoronavirus / Bioethics / Clinical standards / Communication / Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology / COVID-19 / COVID-19 diagnostic tests / Deafness / Delivery of Health Care - ethics / Disabilities / Disability / Disabled Persons - legislation & jurisprudence / Disease control / Disease prevention / Distributive justice / Emergency Medical Services / Emergency preparedness / Ethical standards / Ethics / Handicapped accessibility / Health care / Health care policy / Health Care Rationing / Health Planning / Health Policy / Health services / Humans / Inequality / Information dissemination / Intellectual disabilities / Marginality / Medical ethics / Mobility / Norms / Pandemics / Patient communication / People with disabilities / Planning / Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology / Principles / Public health / Rationing / SARS-CoV-2 / Social distancing / Social justice / Telemedicine / United States - epidemiology / Vulnerability / Vulnerable Populations