The ethics of deferred consent in times of pandemics

The ethics of deferred consent in times of pandemics
Comment
Rieke van der Graaf, Marie-Astrid Hoogerwerf, Martine C. de Vries
Nature Medicine, 10 July 2020
Open Access
Abstract
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, many researchers are applying to research ethics committees for deferred-consent procedures for protocols that aim either to test treatments or to obtain tissue or samples from research participants. However, the deferred-consent procedure has not been developed for pandemics. In this Comment, we interpret existing guidance documents and argue when and under which conditions deferred consent can be considered ethically acceptable in a pandemic.