How to Handle Trade-Offs in Pandemics

Krister Bykvist

doi:10.23941/ejpe.v14i1.609

Abstract

Pandemics and other similar crises force us to make difficult moral trade-offs. It is tempting to think that this challenge should be met by invoking fundamental moral principles. This is a mistake. Instead, we need to work hard at designing institutions that enable the officeholders to make reasonable decisions under both fundamental ethical disagreement and empirical/evaluative uncertainty. It is argued that this is best done by supplementing the ethical-cum-legal platforms already in use with an ethical framework inspired by social welfare theory.

Highlights

INTRODUCTION‘Follow the science’ has been a recurring catchphrase during the pandemic. It has been used by both politicians and scientists to justify radical measures to stop the spread of Covid-19
Pandemics and other similar crises force us to make difficult moral trade-offs
Here we face a dilemma: either the platform rules are general and vague enough to gain broad societal approval, but this will come at the cost of not providing any clear guidance when it comes to difficult trade-offs, or they do provide such guidance but at the cost of lacking broad societal approval

Summary

INTRODUCTION

‘Follow the science’ has been a recurring catchphrase during the pandemic. It has been used by both politicians and scientists to justify radical measures to stop the spread of Covid-19. The obvious problem is that science on its own cannot justify measures—it can only tell you what is, will, or might be the case, and not what ought to be the case It is tempting for us moral philosophers to think that we have exactly the right theoretical background to fill this gap between scientific results and the adoption of measures or strategies. It is easy to think that the main focus should be on finding the most reasonable, universal fundamental principles. Once these have been identified and made public, the decision-makers can use them to justifiably move from scientific results to decisions in pandemics and other crises. An ethical framework is a system of rules that are in compliance with ethically binding platforms but provide more fine-tuned and precise trade-off principles, often by providing interpretations of the general and vague principles set by the platforms

EXAMPLES OF TRADE-OFFS

HOW TO UNDERSTAND TRADE-OFF QUESTIONS

WHY IS THE ‘FILLING THE GAP APPROACH’ PROBLEMATIC?

ETHICAL PLATFORMS

ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS

CONCLUDING REMARKS