Ethical and Legal Aspects of Pandemics During COVID‐19 and Beyond for the Hepatology Community

Abstract

Pandemics are associated with major human suffering, including ethical and legal challenges that impact daily practice profoundly.• Safety concerns impact all parties concerned, from personal fears of health care workers to infect their beloved to profound economic disasters for health care systems and society. • A transparent ethical and legal framework is mandatory and should include policies toward the powerless and disadvantaged. • The hepatology community needs to revisit their approach to medicine, turning a medical and societal disaster into opportunities to improve the way we deliver care in an equitable and fair way with improved outcomes.Implementing new concepts and policies in clinical hepatology during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires awareness of ethical and legal issues. Prior pandemics highlight common events that can help guide preparedness for the future. 1,2 Descriptions of prior health catastrophes, such as the bubonic plague, include exhausted health care workers, inability to keep up with the dead, government restrictions, medical professionals under scrutiny, firing of those who brought bad news, overreach by governments, censorship, public anger, and violence. They illustrate the challenges to translate medical advice into workable policies. In 2007, 194 countries, including the United States, signed updated binding international law and with a leading World Health Organization (WHO) role "to prevent, protect, control and provide a public