Meeting Twenty: The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues – Focus on the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic
February 5-6, 2015, Washington, D.C.
Federal Register Notice
Agenda
Watch the live webcast Feb. 5-6
Location: The Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1001 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005

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The Commission is considering three areas of ethical concern raised by public health emergency response with a focus on the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic. The first area concerns U.S. public policies that restrict association or movement (such as quarantine), which have recently been proposed and/or employed for health care workers and military personnel returning from countries affected by EVD in western Africa.

The second area concerns the ethics of placebo-controlled trials in the context of public health emergencies, and the EVD epidemic specifically, where the drug undergoing testing might be effective against the disease causing the emergency.
The third area of concern is the ethical considerations relevant to collecting and storing biospecimens during a public health emergency, such as the EVD epidemic, and sharing these
specimens and associated data internationally for future research…

The Bioethics Commission Requests Comment on Ethical Considerations in the EVD Response
…The Commission is particularly interested in receiving public commentary regarding the following issues in the context of public health emergency response generally and the EVD epidemic specifically:
:: Ethical and scientific standards for public health emergency response;
:: Ethical and scientific standards that guide the use of quarantine or other movement restrictions during public health emergencies;
:: The impact of quarantine or other movement restrictions on the availability or willingness of health workers to volunteer to contain the epidemic in disease-affected areas;
:: The impact of quarantine or other movement restrictions on public fear and anxiety about potential threats to public health;
:: How U.S. public policy and public health response to the current EVD epidemic might or should affect public attitudes to, and further U.S. policy and public health response to, other current and future public health issues and emergencies;
:: Ethical and scientific standards for placebo-controlled trials during public health emergencies;
:: Ethical and scientific standards for collection, storage, and international sharing of biospecimens and associated data during public health emergencies.