Medical ethics generally applies to individual interactions between physicians 
and patients. Conversely, public health ethics typically applies to interactions 
between an agency or institution and a community or population. Four main 
principles underlie medical ethics: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and 
justice. By contrast, public health ethical principles address issues such as 
interdependence, community trust, fundamentality, and justice. In large part 
because of the significant community-level effects of public health issues, 
medical ethics are suboptimal for assessing community-level public health 
interventions or plans-especially in the area of emergency preparedness. To be 
effective, as well as ethical, public health preparedness efforts must address 
all of the core principles of public health ethics.