Professor
nicholas.king [at] mcgill.ca | 514-623-5464
Prof. King holds a masters degree in medical anthropology and a PhD in the history of Science from Harvard University. He is an associate professor in the Biomedical Ethics Unit and the Social Studies of Medicine department. He also holds appointments in the Max Bell School of Public Policy; the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy; and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health.
Research Interests:
Prof. King studies and teaches about public health policy, ethics, and epistemology. He is particularly concerned about the ways that 'black boxes' of all sorts - from seemingly objective measures of health and health inequalities, to complex algorithms - are shaped by human interests and hidden value judgments, which in turn influence individual decisions, collective behaviors, and public policies. Current research projects include: using machine learning to study engagement between sponsors and authors of scientific research on a massive scale; examining the ethics of automated digital disease surveillance; and assessing the proper role of direct cash transfers in public health policies and interventions.
Recordings:
- Defining freedom in the time of COVID
- Weaponizing Uncertainty During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Health Disparities Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Evidence and Uncertainty During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Selected Publications:
- How global is global health research? A large-scale analysis of trends in authorship BMJ Global Health (2021)
- Declining Life Expectancy in the United States: Missing the Trees for the Forest. Annual Review of Public Health (2020)
- Harm Reduction: A Misnomer. Health Care Analysis (2020)
- Technological Fixes and Antimicrobial Resistance. In Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health (2020)
- Catastrophe Theory in Slow Motion. Biosocieties (2020)
- The politics of evidence and uncertainty in the COVID-19 pandemic. Policy for Pandemics (2020)
- Cash transfer programs have differential effects on health: A review of the literature from low and middle-income countries. Social Science & Medicine (2020)
- Defining Global Health as Public Health Somewhere Else. BMJ Global Health (2020)
- The impact of social and psychological consequences of disease on judgments of disease severity: An experimental study PLOS One (2018)
- The Zika epidemic and abortion in Latin America: a scoping review. Global Health Research and Policy (2018)
- Epigenetics Changes Nothing: What a New Scientific Field Does and Does Not Mean for Ethics and Social Justice Public Health Ethics (2017)
- Out of Alignment? Limitations of the Global Burden of Disease in Assessing the Allocation of Global Health Aid. Public Health Ethics (2017)
- The heterogeneity of vulnerability in public health: a heat wave action plan as a case study. Critical Public Health (2017)
- Justice, Evidence, and Interdisciplinary Health Inequalities Research. Chapter in Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice: New Conversations across the Disciplines (2016)
- Has the Increase in Disability Insurance Participation Contributed to Increased Opioid-Related Mortality? Annals of Internal Medicine (2016)
- 'Unsettling circularity': Clinical trial enrichment and the evidentiary politics of chronic pain. Biosocieties (April 2016)
- Ebola 1995/2014. Limn 5 (2015)
Courses Given:
- PPHS 624: Public Health Ethics and Policy
- PPOL 606: Experts, Evidence, and Policy – or, How to be Skeptical Without Being Cyncial
- INDS 406: Understanding the 'Crisis' in Health Research, and its Implications for Health Policy and Practice
- Lectures in the undergraduate medical curriculum: Individual rights and collective responsibilities in public health; resource allocation and distributive justice; conflict of interest in health research and medical practice.