ReviewLancet regional health. Americas2022
Uncertainty, scarcity and transparency: Public health ethics and risk communication in a pandemic.
Review in Lancet regional health. Americas, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Quality of clinical evidence and political justifications of ivermectin mass distribution of COVID-19 kits in eight Latin American countries.BMJ global health · 2023Pooled it
- Uncertainty on trial: the Fauci diary disclosure and the protection of scientific deliberation.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Defining Health Misinformation: Theoretical Concept Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Review
- The where and the why: sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines among migrants in Australia.Global health promotion · 2026Article
- Rapid response and surveillance for high-risk contacts during May 2026 Andes hantavirus outbreak: a Northern Italy experience.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Understanding crisis dynamics during public health emergencies: an integrated framework of social consequences, trust, and behavioral responses.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Chicago Public Health Department Social Media Communications on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Mpox Epidemic: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Article
- Lessons learned: enhancing rural risk communication for future health crises through the PHERCC framework.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Proxies of Trustworthiness: A Novel Framework to Support the Performance of Trust in Human Health Research.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2024Article
- Convivial Populations: Ivan Illich and Public Health in the 21st Century.American journal of public health · 2024Article
- COVID-19 ethics: unique aspects and a review as of early 2024.Monash bioethics review · 2024Review
- Examination of public perceptions of microbes and microbiomes in the United States reveals insights for science communication.PloS one · 2024Article
- The Relationship Between Communicative Actions, Behavioral Intentions, and Corporate Reputation in the Framework of Situational Theory of Problem Solving in a Public Health Crisis.International journal of public health · 2023Article
- Fielding vaccines-challenges and opportunities in outbreaks, complex emergencies, and mass gatherings.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2022Review
- Effect of the provision of estimated waiting time on patient satisfaction with the Emergency Department: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of family & community medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Communicating public health guidance is key to mitigating risk during disasters and outbreaks, and ethical guidance on communication emphasizes being fully transparent. Yet, communication during the pandemic has sometimes been fraught, due in part to practical and conceptual challenges around being transparent. A particular challenge has arisen when there was both evolving scientific knowledge on COVID-19 and reticence to acknowledge that resource scarcity concerns were influencing public health recommendations. This essay uses the example of communicating public health guidance on masking in the United States to illustrate ethical challenges of developing and conveying public health guidance under twin conditions of uncertainty and resource scarcity. Such situations require balancing two key principles in public health ethics: the precautionary principle and harm reduction. Transparency remains a bedrock value to guide risk communication, but optimizing transparency requires consideration of additional ethical values in developing and implementing risk communication strategies.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.