Welcome!

My name is Charles Weijer (pronounced VEY-er). I am a bioethicist and professor at Western University in London, Canada who specializes in research ethics.

Together with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues and trainees, I explore ethical issues in randomized controlled trials, COVID-19 human challenge studies, and organ donation.

In the news

August 27, 2021

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine now has full FDA approval. Here's what that means

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April 16, 2021

Would you risk your life to save others from a deadly virus?

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March 23, 2021

COVID-19 trial infecting healthy volunteers needs full transparency, say campaigners

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February 18, 2021

The UK is infecting people with COVID-19 for science. Is it worth it?

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December 27, 2020

Ethics dumping: colonial thinking in science.

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October 22, 2020

Vaccine trials need more transparency to enable scrutiny and earn public trust, say experts.

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New publications

The CONSERVE 2021 statement: guidelines for reporting trials modified due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other extenuating circumstances

Are surgical placebo controls ethically justifiable?

A review of pragmatic trials found a high degree of diversity in design and scope, deficiencies in reporting and trial registry data, and poor indexing

COVID-19 vaccines:

should we allow human challenge studies to infect health volunteers with SARS-CoV-2?

Reopening schools safely in the face of COVID-19:

can cluster randomized trials help?

Use of multiple period, cluster randomised, crossover trial designs for comparative effectiveness research

Upcoming and recent talks

Building Equitable Partnerships in International Research

SAGE Methods Webinar

October 21, 2021

Panelists will discuss how we can partner in global health research in ethical, respectful ways. Panelists include Nchangwi Syntia Munung (University of Cape Town), Doris Schroeder (UCLan), Samuel Ujewe (CIHR), and Charles Weijer (Western University).

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