Explanipedia

Managing infectious aerosols to counter engineered pandemics: Current recommendations and future research Open

Adam Lerner, Gediminas Mainelis, William K. Hallman, Howard M. Kipen, Monica Magalhães , et al. · 2025

In the increasingly likely event of an engineered‐virus outbreak or pandemic of catastrophic potential, managing infectious aerosols to reduce transmission will be crucial. Now is the time to start preparing our buildings, public opinion, …

U.S. Physicians’ Views on E-Cigarette Risks and Benefits to Adults Who Smoke Versus Young People Who Do Not Smoke Open

Monica Magalhães, Michelle T. Bover Manderski, Michelle Jeong, William J. Young, Michael Steinberg , et al. · 2025

The United States Withdrawal From the World Health Organization: Implications and Challenges Open

Vahid Yazdi‐Feyzabadi, Ali Akbar Haghdoost, Martin McKee, Amirhossein Takian, Elizabeth H. Bradley , et al. · 2025

President Trump’s 2025 decision to remove the United States (US) from the World Health Organization (WHO), echoing his initial 2020 move, raises existential questions about the future of global health governance. This editorial explores th…

Incommensurability and democratic deliberation in bioethics Open

Nir Eyal · 2024

Often, a health resource distribution (or, more generally, a health policy) ranks higher than another on one value, say, on promoting total population health; and lower on another, say, on promoting that of the worst off. Then, some opine,…

Ethics & utility of controlled human infection studies (CHIS) in low- & middle-income countries Open

Jake D Eberts, Nir Eyal, Sayantan Banerjee · 2024

Willingness to trade-off years of life for an HIV cure – an experimental exploration of affective forecasting Open

Ilona Fridman, Nir Eyal, Karen A. Scherr, Judith S. Currier, Kenneth A. Freedberg , et al. · 2024

These negative findings suggest that either these biases are difficult to overcome in the settings of HIV curative medication or other factors beyond affective forecasting biases influence willingness to participate in HIV curative studies…

Dual-use research and research using enhanced pathogens in high-income countries: whose business? Open

Nir Eyal, Melkizedeck Leshabari, Malabika Sarker · 2024

U.S. regulation of dual-use research of concern and of research with enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential may alter soon. Much has been written on the best form for that regulation to take. Less was written on a procedural question: wh…

On Prevalence and Prudence Open

Nir Eyal · 2024

John Roemer’s pragmatic proposal for luck-egalitarian planners normalizes risky choices for individuals’ social “types,” such that risk takers from types where the same risky behaviors are prevalent retain their just entitlements to societ…

Contact tracing performance during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, 2014-2015 Open

Krista C. Swanson, Chiara Altare, Chea Stanford Wesseh, Tolbert Nyenswah, Tashrik Ahmed , et al. · 2024

Background: During the Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in Liberia, contact tracing was implemented to rapidly detect new cases and prevent further transmission. We describe the scope and characteristics of contact tracing in Liberia and…

Future pandemics and the urge to ‘do something’ Open

Adam Lerner, Nir Eyal · 2024

Research with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPP) makes pathogens substantially more lethal, communicable, immunosuppressive or otherwise capable of triggering a pandemic. We briefly relay an existing argument that the benefits of…

4.1 In Practice: Vaccine Efficacy and Safety Testing—An Ethical Case for Individual Randomization Open

Nir Eyal, Marc Lipsitch · 2024

A scientific trial has individually randomized control when the intervention or control status for each participant is independently chosen at random at the start of the trial. That is in contrast to cluster randomization, where this statu…

When offering a patient beneficial treatment undermines public health Open

Nir Eyal, Bridget M Williams · 2023

Sometimes, offering someone beneficial care is likely to thwart the similar or more serious medical needs of more people. For example, when acute shortage is strongly predicted to persist, providing the long period on scarce intensive care…

Ethical and legal race‐responsive vaccine allocation Open

Bastian Steuwer, Nir Eyal · 2023

In many countries, the COVID‐19 pandemic varied starkly between different racial and ethnic groups. Before vaccines were approved, some considered assigning priority access to worse‐hit racial groups. That debate can inform rationing in fu…

All research that might result in a pandemic must undergo external review Open

Nir Eyal · 2023

Could scientists nowadays conduct a study that risks the lives of millions, without their consent and with no external review?1 Surely, you might think, such studies could not happen anymore, not in developed countries with elaborate resea…

COP27: The Prospects and Challenges for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Open

Amirhossein Takian, Arefeh Mousavi, Martin McKee, Vahid Yazdi‐Feyzabadi, Ronald Labonté , et al. · 2022

In line with the global trend, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been growing vulnerable to the direct and indirect health effects of climate change including death tolls due to climatological disasters and diseases sensit…

Characterizing altruistic motivation in potential volunteers for SARS-CoV-2 challenge trials Open

Abigail A. Marsh, Monica Magalhães, Matthew Peeler, S Rose, Thomas C. Darton , et al. · 2022

In human challenge trials (HCTs), volunteers are deliberately infected with an infectious agent. Such trials can be used to accelerate vaccine development and answer important scientific questions. Starting early in the COVID-19 pandemic, …

Mass drug administration of azithromycin: an analysis Open

Rebecca Kahn, Nir Eyal, Samba O. Sow, Marc Lipsitch · 2022

Although better data on antibiotic use and resistance are needed, efforts to reduce antibiotic use and resistance should not start with halting MDA of azithromycin in the areas with the highest rates of childhood mortality. Improving data …

The ethical case for placebo control in HIV-cure-related studies with ART interruption Open

Monica Magalhães, Daniel R. Kuritzkes, Nir Eyal · 2022

One lesson of COVID-19: Conduct more health policy trials Open

Luchuo Engelbert Bain, Astrid Berner-Rodoreda, Shannon A. McMahon, Malabika Sarker, Frank Tanser , et al. · 2022

Microbial communities are found throughout the biosphere, from human guts to glaciers, from soil to activated sludge. Understanding the statistical properties of such diverse communities can pave the way to elucidate the common mechanisms …

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccine Prioritization in Low- and Middle-Income Countries May Justifiably Depart From High-Income Countries’ Age Priorities Open

Nir Eyal, Anca Gheaus, Axel Gosseries, Monica Magalhães, Thierry Ngosso , et al. · 2022

In high-income countries that were first to roll out coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, older adults have thus far usually been prioritized for these vaccines over younger adults. Age-based priority primarily resulted from inter…

A new day for human challenge trials? Open

Abie Rohrig, Nir Eyal · 2022

Research ethics and public trust in vaccines: the case of COVID-19 challenge trials Open

Nir Eyal · 2022

Despite their clearly demonstrated safety and effectiveness, approved vaccines against COVID-19 are commonly mistrusted. Nations should find and implement effective ways to boost vaccine confidence. But the implications for ethical vaccine…

Pandemic vaccine testing: Combining conventional and challenge studies Open

Tobias Gerhard, Brian L. Strom, Nir Eyal · 2022

Early into COVID, human challenge trials were considered, but usually as alternatives to conventional randomized controlled trials. Instead, assessment of authorized COVID vaccines, of further COVID vaccines, and of vaccines against future…

Consent Requirements for Testing Health Policies: An Intercontinental Comparison of Expert Opinions Open

Astrid Berner-Rodoreda, Shannon A. McMahon, Nir Eyal, Puspita Hossain, Atonu Rabbani , et al. · 2022

Individual informed consent is a central requirement for clinical research on human subjects, yet whether and how consent requirements should apply to health policy experiments (HPEs) remains unclear. HPEs test and evaluate public health p…

“The research assistants kept coming to follow me up; I counted myself as a lucky person”: Social support arising from a longitudinal HIV cohort study in Uganda Open

Jeffrey I. Campbell, Angella Musiimenta, Sylvia Natukunda, Nir Eyal, Jessica E. Haberer · 2022

Background Participation in longitudinal research studies in resource-limited settings often involves frequent interactions with study staff and other participants, as well as receipt of incentives and transportation reimbursements. Social…

“Thought provoking”, “interactive”, and “more like a peer talk”: Testing the deliberative interview style in Germany Open

Astrid Berner-Rodoreda, Till Bärnighausen, Nir Eyal, Malabika Sarker, Puspita Hossain , et al. · 2021

Do coronavirus vaccine challenge trials have a distinctive generalisability problem? Open

Nir Eyal, Tobias Gerhard · 2021

Notwithstanding the success of conventional field trials for vaccines against COVID-19, human challenge trials (HCTs) that could obtain more information about these and about other vaccines and further strategies against it are about to st…

Strengthening and accelerating SARS-CoV-2 vaccine safety surveillance through registered pre-approval rollout after challenge tests Open

Nir Eyal, Tobias Gerhard, Brian L. Strom · 2021

COVID vaccine efficacy against the B.1.351 (“South African”) variant—The urgent need to lay the groundwork for possible future challenge studies Open

Nir Eyal, Arthur L. Caplan, Stanley A. Plotkin · 2021

SARS-CoV-2’s B.1.351 (“South African”) variant “is markedly more resistant to neutralization by convalescent plasma (9.4 fold) and vaccinee sera (10.3–12.4 fold),”1,2 raising the specter that that ...

Characterizing altruistic motivation in potential volunteers for SARS-CoV-2 challenge trials Open

S Rose, Virginia Schmit, Thomas C. Darton, Nir Eyal, Monica Magalhães , et al. · 2021

In human challenge trials, volunteers are deliberately infected with a pathogen to accelerate vaccine development and answer key scientific questions. In the U.S., preparations for challenge trials with the novel coronavirus are complete, …

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