Should infectious disease modelling research be subject to ethics review?

Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine

Commentary

Ben Green¹ 

[1]The Medical School, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK

关键词: Research ethics;    Research integrity;    Peer review;    Epidemiology;    Modelling;    Bioethics;    Principlism;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13010-023-00138-4

 received in 2023-01-10, accepted in 2023-06-17,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Should research projects involving epidemiological modelling be subject to ethical scrutiny and peer review prior to publication? Mathematical modelling had considerable impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to social distancing and lockdowns. Imperial College conducted research leading to the website publication of a paper, Report 9, on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and COVID-19 mortality demand dated 16th March 2020, arguing for a Government policy of non-pharmaceutical interventions (e.g. lockdowns, social distancing, mask wearing, working from home, furlough, school closures, reduced family interaction etc.) to counter COVID 19. Enquiries and Freedom of Information requests to the institution indicate that there was no formal ethical committee review of this specific research, nor was there any peer review prior to their online publication of Report 9. This paper considers the duties placed upon researchers, institutions and research funders under the UK ‘Concordat to Support Research Integrity’ (CSRI), across various bioethical domains, and whether ethical committee scrutiny should be required for this research.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023