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Access the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics for Free: Includes chapter from Director Debra DeBruin, PhD

Learning about Public Health Ethics just got easier: In light of the current pandemic, the Oxford University Press has made all 73 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics available for free online. 

Handbook Abstract: Public health is fundamentally concerned with promoting the health of populations through the prevention of disease and injury. It is, at its core, a moral endeavor, because the end it seeks is the advancement of human well-being. Vexing ethics issues are inherent in all aspects of public health practice and policy. They exist in top-of-the-news stories like infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine hesitancy, health disparities, and in more routine assessments of population health needs, data collection, program evaluation, and policy development. They may be distinctive or shared across diverse fields, such as environmental health, nutrition programs and policy, injury prevention, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and reproductive health. This volume represents the first comprehensive examination of public health ethics in the United States and globally. [The] book, its sections, and individual chapters [can be used] as part of course materials, as well as a seminal reference for students, scholars, and public health professionals." 
 
Keywords: Governmental Public Health | Public Health System | Pandemic Planning | Chronic Disease | Infectious disease | Public Health Ethics

Within the handbook, you will find a chapter written by our director Debra DeBruin, PhD and colleague JP Leider, PhD, titled “The US Public Health System and Ethics.” Contributing author Holly A. Taylor describes their chapter: "Debra DeBruin and Jonathon P. Leider begin with an introduction to the depth and breadth of the public health system. The authors note that the public health system is generally “invisible” to the general public, at least until something goes wrong, such as an outbreak of disease or the contamination of a water system. They argue that ethical issues pervade the conduct of public health, from the development of national strategies to day-to-day decisions made by local health officers. They conclude with a focus on the ethics of pandemic influenza planning from the perspective of a local health department, emphasizing the challenge of how best to respond to a public health emergency without exacerbating health disparities among the populations affected."