Third-year student Timothy Shaw (Medicine), gave an oral presentation titled, "Justice and the Tragedy of the Commons: Addressing the Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis," at the 25th annual meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities on October 12 in Baltimore, Maryland.
The frequent use of antibiotics has led to an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, posing a serious public health challenge. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) blends public health ethics with economic theories, particularly the 'tragedy of the commons' concept, which pertains to the shared use of antibiotics. In this presentation, the ethical principle of justice to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches to AMR was discussed and examined. Financial measures, like Pigouvian taxes and incentives, focus on promoting community welfare but often neglect the impact on lower socioeconomic groups. This suggests that taxing antibiotics for self-limiting infections to combat AMR could harm underprivileged populations. The discussions focused on innovative financial strategies and placing more emphasis on public health campaigns to limit antibiotic use with the goal of preventing the worsening of health inequalities and contributing more effectively to solving the AMR crisis.
