AMA Journal of Ethics^®

The complex nature of clinician governors’ roles and responsibilities in the best of times and during crises is the topic of discussion in this month’s issue.

This summary of guidance on physicians’ interactions with governments considers their nonclinical roles, political actions, and communications.

Misinformation is an urgent new problem, so health professions communities need solutions as much as they need to be wary of ethical pitfalls of rushed interventions.

Conflicts of interest must be acknowledged with sincerity and earnestness and managed such that the conflict is eliminated or, at least, credibly mitigated.

Under-resourced and fragmented public health infrastructure has contributed to a poor pandemic response in the United States.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinician policy makers have faced unprecedented challenges to their roles in governance.

When regulatory decisions express overconfidence, one risk is that the costliness or misinformation will exacerbate health inequity.

Clinicians using governing authority to make public health policy are ethically obliged to draw upon scientific and clinical information that accords professional standards.

This comic considers how patients work to use the right vocabulary to help their physicians help them.

This commentary considers how clinician-governors should respond to how Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores are applied.