Falsifying positive COVID-19 Tests, Beneficence or Damaging?

    It seems surreal to imagine what life was like before the coronavirus pandemic that overtook the world almost two years ago. The significant impact that COVID-19 has had on the world has opened the doors for many ethical issues to arise, from hoarding sanitary products (including toilet paper) to vaccinations and the wearing of masks. Many of these topics prove to be a sensitive and hot topic to discuss as it brings into play politics and medicine, and as we have heard throughout the semester, health care and politics are very much intertwined. 

Former president John Magufuli, was an outspoken advocate for negating the existence and gravity of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus. As many politicians at the time, the threat of shutting down the country would lead to a detrimental impact on the economy. Magufali secretly had a papaya, quail, and goat tested for the novel virus and their results came back positive claiming the testing process was faulty and not reliable (Peralta, 2020). Therefore, locals were not taking the appropriate precautions for the virus and the spread began quickly. The death toll in Tunisia was the highest it had been since the start of the pandemic this past July, 2021, making it the highest COVID-19 mortality country in middle eastern Africa (Al Jazeera, 2021). This led to the the health care workers in Tunisia to take matters into their own hands and began telling the locals that the numbers the president was reporting as far as infections and mortality were 3 times higher than his reports (Lee, 2020). Health care workers in Tunisia also were reported to be falsifying positive COVID-19 tests for patients in an attempt to have the rest of their family members and community to go get tested (Kooli, 2021). 

As an aspiring healthcare worker I believe it is important and crucial to advocate for your patients overall health and well being and use your advantages for the greater good. It is a difficult position for healthcare workers in Tunisia to be placed. I assume they would advocate for the ethical principles of non maleficence and justice for the reason of their actions. By advocating for their community to get tested and limit the spread of the virus they were aiming to do no harm by limiting the possibility of getting infected and potentially getting very sick as well as promoting justice by limiting the spread in Tunisia. 

Food for thought: If you were placed in the shoes of these health care workers in Tunisia, would you have done the same thing?

References: 

Al Jazeera. (2021, July 17). Tunisia reports the highest COVID death toll since the start of pandemic. Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/17/tunisia-marks-worse-daily-covid-deaths-since-start-of-pandemic. 

Kooli, C. (2021). Covid-19: Public health issues and ethical dilemmas. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 17, 100635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100635 

Lee, J. (n.d.). Did Tanzania's president expose faulty COVID-19 testing by submitting non-human samples? Snopes.com. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tanzania-president-covid-tests/. 

Peralta, E. (2020, May 11). Tanzania's president blames fake positive tests in the spike in coronavirus cases. NPR. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2020/05/11/854115407/tanzanias-president-blames-fake-positive-tests-in-the-spike-in-coronavirus-cases.