The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values?
Abstract While the world was facing a rapidly progressing COVID-19 second wave, a policy paradox emerged. On the one side, much more was known by Autumn 2020 about the mechanisms underpinning the spread and lethality of Sars-CoV-2. On the other side, how such knowledge should be translated by policy...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00839-1 |
| _version_ | 1818653078936616960 |
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| author | Federica Angeli Silvia Camporesi Giorgia Dal Fabbro |
| author_facet | Federica Angeli Silvia Camporesi Giorgia Dal Fabbro |
| author_sort | Federica Angeli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While the world was facing a rapidly progressing COVID-19 second wave, a policy paradox emerged. On the one side, much more was known by Autumn 2020 about the mechanisms underpinning the spread and lethality of Sars-CoV-2. On the other side, how such knowledge should be translated by policymakers into containment measures appeared to be much more controversial and debated than during the first wave in Spring. Value-laden, conflicting views in the scientific community emerged about both problem definition and subsequent solutions surrounding the epidemiological emergency, which underlined that the COVID-19 global crisis had evolved towards a full-fledged policy “wicked problem”. With the aim to make sense of the seemingly paradoxical scientific disagreement around COVID-19 public health policies, we offer an ethical analysis of the scientific views encapsulated in the Great Barrington Declaration and of the John Snow Memorandum, two scientific petitions that appeared in October 2020. We show that how evidence is interpreted and translated into polar opposite advice with respect to COVID-19 containment policies depends on a different ethical compass that leads to different prioritization decisions of ethical values and societal goals. We then highlight the need for a situated approach to public health policy, which recognizes that policies are necessarily value-laden, and need to be sensitive to context-specific and historic socio-cultural and socio-economic nuances. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:32:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f330f3323fea47e8896266ccb1efab57 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:32:11Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-f330f3323fea47e8896266ccb1efab572022-12-21T22:06:56ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922021-06-01811810.1057/s41599-021-00839-1The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values?Federica Angeli0Silvia Camporesi1Giorgia Dal Fabbro2University of York Management School, University of YorkDepartment of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College LondonSchool of International Studies, University of TrentoAbstract While the world was facing a rapidly progressing COVID-19 second wave, a policy paradox emerged. On the one side, much more was known by Autumn 2020 about the mechanisms underpinning the spread and lethality of Sars-CoV-2. On the other side, how such knowledge should be translated by policymakers into containment measures appeared to be much more controversial and debated than during the first wave in Spring. Value-laden, conflicting views in the scientific community emerged about both problem definition and subsequent solutions surrounding the epidemiological emergency, which underlined that the COVID-19 global crisis had evolved towards a full-fledged policy “wicked problem”. With the aim to make sense of the seemingly paradoxical scientific disagreement around COVID-19 public health policies, we offer an ethical analysis of the scientific views encapsulated in the Great Barrington Declaration and of the John Snow Memorandum, two scientific petitions that appeared in October 2020. We show that how evidence is interpreted and translated into polar opposite advice with respect to COVID-19 containment policies depends on a different ethical compass that leads to different prioritization decisions of ethical values and societal goals. We then highlight the need for a situated approach to public health policy, which recognizes that policies are necessarily value-laden, and need to be sensitive to context-specific and historic socio-cultural and socio-economic nuances.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00839-1 |
| spellingShingle | Federica Angeli Silvia Camporesi Giorgia Dal Fabbro The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? |
| title_full | The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? |
| title_fullStr | The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? |
| title_short | The COVID-19 wicked problem in public health ethics: conflicting evidence, or incommensurable values? |
| title_sort | covid 19 wicked problem in public health ethics conflicting evidence or incommensurable values |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00839-1 |
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