Thread by @AbraarKaran

1/ The year before #covid19, my academic focus was largely on Ebola & epidemic response in the global health setting. From Feb 2019 to Jan 2020, I worked as the editor of the @JournalofEthics theme issue on the ethics of pandemic response.

journalofethics.ama-assn.org/issue/culture-…

2/ We had the great privilege of contributions from many experts—- and we covered topics ranging from how anthropology can help us better understand how to work alongside communities during an epidemic...

journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-sh…

3/ to the ethics of emergency vaccine distribution— both immensely relevant again. (@BhadeliaMD co-authored the latter; @Real_Ironist - you may find the former ⬆️ interesting)

journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/making…

4/ We also covered the topic of the ethics of journalism during a pandemic— @klgthomas @AlphaSenkpeni1 wrote this awesome piece as it relates to Ebola.

Cc @edyong209 @zeynep @HelenBranswell @kakape

journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/what-s…

5/ My own personal interest was what epidemics revealed abt #globalhealth priorities in the interactions b/w the West & the rest of 🌍. Are we actually in this as partners? Or is the agenda more self-interested? Cc @paimadhu @seyeabimbola @JoiaMukherjee journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-sh…

6/ Particularly lucky that we had the chance to interview Dr. David Heymann— one of the world experts on epidemic containment & someone who has become a mentor over the past year. See podcast interview w him:
Cc @DrTomFrieden @DrNancyM_CDC
journalofethics.ama-assn.org/podcast/ethics…

7/ Many ways this theme issue could have been improved— while this was a US focused publication, we would only have benefited from having more international voices here; many of the most experienced world experts on epidemics are *not* in the US or Europe. Cc @gabbystern

8/ Also would have been awesome to have had voices of brilliant folks I have only now met virtually through #covid19

cc @angie_rasmussen @nataliexdean @SaskiaPopescu @KrutikaKuppalli @EpiEllie @syramadad @kj_seung @s_keshavjee @j_g_allen @celinegounder @T_Inglesby & many others

9/ & most of what I’ve learned about epidemics over the yrs I learned from my colleague/mentor/friend @RanuDhillon who is one of the few people probably in the country that has true ground experience in stopping intl epidemics - the US response would be better from his wisdom.

10/ & of course immense thanks @IngridKatzMD - my mentor who helped me & guided me through this project & the staff @HarvardGH — we had many meetings putting this issue together to try & capture the complexity of epidemics; and we see all of these playing out again w/ #covid19

11/ One of big takeaways: history repeats itself, esp when we fail to learn from the experience & respect the work of our intl neighbors; the US response would have been all the better if we followed the expertise of countries that had dealt w/ this before #covid19