Law enforcement search for armed suspect, Vance Boelter, in fatal shooting of Minnesota lawmaker.

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The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t just testing our medicine. It’s testing our morals.

In March, public health leaders predicted doctors could be put into the nightmarish situation of determining who got a ventilator, if communities failed to practice social distancing. Now that hospitals have had time to stockpile equipment, medical staff no longer face having to decide that particular question. 

But new ethical conundrums are rising up. Is it OK to test an unknown vaccine on human subjects? Once a vaccine is developed, who gets it first? What about hoarding? How do we balance our own freedom against the good of the group?

Thursday on MPR News with Kerri Miller, spoke with two leading bioethicists to help us examine the tough decisions faced by doctors, government leaders and the public. 

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The ethical dilemmas presented by the pandemic are exploding. How do doctors, government leaders and the public make high-stakes decisions when we don’t have all the information?

MPR News with Kerri Miller - The ethics of managing a global pandemic

A fatigued health care worker takes a moment outside a hospital.

How do we decide? Ethics of the COVID-19 pandemic

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