Abstract
AbstractIn this contribution, we explore the plausibility and consequences of treating arguments over what counts as a COVID-19 death as metalinguistic arguments. While unquestionably related to the epidemiological and public health issues, these arguments are also arguments about how a term should be used. As such, they touch upon some of the foundational issues in meta-semantics, discussed in the recent literature on metalinguistic negotiations, conceptual ethics, and conceptual engineering. Against this background, we study official statements (of WHO, governments) and media reports to critically reconstruct the metalinguistic elements of the dispute over what a COVID-19 death is. We analyze in particular how epistemic and practical reasons are intertwined in nuanced and complex ways to produce an interesting type of metalinguistic interventions.
Highlights
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 epidemic rapidly spreading from China to most other countries in the world a “pandemic.” A month later, on April 16, that same organization published International Guidelines for Certification and Classification (Coding) of Covid-19 as Cause of Death, Based on ICD: International Statistical Classification of Diseases
They work in the service of broader practical arguments whereby scientific results are weighted against broader public policy values
Individual countries should not correct what is assumed to be an error, since changes at the national level will lead to data that are less comparable to data from other countries, and less useful for analysis. Key scientific values such as precision and self-correction are overridden by a straightforward practical argument: in the current situation marked by scientific uncertainty and lack of consistency, and given our institutional mandate of protecting public health in an internationally coordinated manner, the best definition-qua-rule we can institute is: any death resulting from a clinically compatible illness, in a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case, counts as COVID-19 death in the context of the current pandemic
Summary
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 epidemic rapidly spreading from China to most other countries in the world a “pandemic.” A month later, on April 16, that same organization published International Guidelines for Certification and Classification (Coding) of Covid-19 as Cause of Death, Based on ICD: International Statistical Classification of Diseases. While unquestionably related to the epidemiological and public health issues, these arguments are arguments about how a term should be used As such, they touch upon some of the foundational issues in meta-semantics, discussed in the recent literature on metalinguistic negotiations, conceptual ethics, and conceptual engineering (Burgess & Plunkett, 2013; Burgess et al, 2020; Cappelen, 2018; Plunkett, 2015; Plunkett & Sundell, 2013, 2021). They touch upon some of the foundational issues in meta-semantics, discussed in the recent literature on metalinguistic negotiations, conceptual ethics, and conceptual engineering (Burgess & Plunkett, 2013; Burgess et al, 2020; Cappelen, 2018; Plunkett, 2015; Plunkett & Sundell, 2013, 2021) Against this background, we analyze in particular how in the debate over what a COVID-19 death is, epistemic and practical reasons are intertwined in nuanced and complex ways to produce an interesting type of metalinguistic interventions. We close by arguing that, in these ways, public metalinguistic arguments, while being a class of their own in need of precise analysis (see Ludlow, 2014; Prus, 2021; Schiappa, 2003), are of key importance to broader public debates and should be recognized as such
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