Vol VIII, Issue 1
Date of Publication: January 10, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2022.042
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Letters
In search of ethical pandemic technology
Sohini Banerjee
KS Roshan Menon
Abstract:
The duration of the pandemic over the last two years has witnessed the steering of multiple technological interventions by governments. These interventions — ranging from contact tracing applications to vaccine certificates — have been developed in the specific context of the pandemic, and were meant to address its unique requirements. This family of technological interventions may be termed “pandemic technology” — having diverse uses such as preventing the transmission of Covid-19, and aiding the relaxation of pandemic-induced restrictions. We propose a four-rung ethical paradigm for the deployment of such technology. We call it the STEP model and its four pillars consist of (i) sunset clauses, (ii) trust, (iii) equity, and (iv) privacy preservation.
Copyright and license
©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2023: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.