The Pandemic Ethics Accelerator Podcasts

This six-part podcast series is hosted by David Edmonds and features interviews with members of the Ethics Accelerator research team, covering some of the themes that emerged from our research. All episodes can be found at the University of Oxford website, here.

A summary of the episodes and links to each of them can be found below:

Episode 1: Jamie Webb

During the pandemic, there were social gatherings in Number 10. This seriously undermined trust in government. But what exactly is trust? And why is trust so vital during a pandemic? Jamie Webb explains.

Episode 2: Beth Kamunge-Kpodo and John Coggan

The pandemic had disproportionate impacts when measured by ethnicity, gender and geography. Beth Kamunge-Kpodo and John Coggan are both legal scholars, and both are interested in inequality.

Episode 3: Sarah Cunningham-Burley

At the start of the covid pandemic there was little time for officials to consult the public. Sarah Cunningham Burley oversaw some public dialogues to assess public attitudes to the pandemic, and to the government’s response.

Episode 4: Melanie Smallman and James Wilson

During the height of the Covid pandemic we became accustomed to watching, listening to and reading about experts in health statistics. J. Wilson and M.Smallman have been researching the use, and sometimes misuse of pandemic data.

Episode 5: Johnny Pugh

Vaccines to combat Covid were developed in record time. Policy-makers then faced a tricky question. It was impossible to vaccinate everyone immediately: so who to inoculate first? Jonny Pugh says there were complex trade-offs.

Episode 6: Ilina Singh

The Pandemic Ethics Accelerator programme was led by Ilina Singh, an Oxford Professor of Neuroscience and Society. In this interview she explains what the programme was, what it was designed to achieve and whether it succeeded.