ABSTRACT
With the current pandemic, many scholars have contended that clinical criteria offer the best way to implement triage. Further, they dismiss the criteria of social value as a good one for triage. In this paper, I respond to refute this perspective. In particular, I present two sets of arguments. Firstly, I argue that the objections to the social value criteria they present apply to the clinical criteria they favor. Secondly, they exaggerate the negative aspects of the social value criteria, while I suggest it is reasonable to use this. I end the article by recommending how operative public values can be a good way to make triaging decisions.
Subject(s)
Social Values , Triage , Delivery of Health Care , Health Facilities , PandemicsSubject(s)
Delivery of Health Care , International Cooperation , Pandemics , COVID-19/epidemiology , Humans , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
This case study analysis looks at Portuguese policy during the COVID-19 pandemic whereby convicts were freed for the sake of public health. I defend this policy negatively by refuting the argument that suggested it involved various forms of injustice.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/prevention & control , Freedom , Policy , Prisoners/legislation & jurisprudence , Public Health/ethics , Humans , Portugal/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic requires emergency policies to be put in place in order to avoid a global health catastrophe. At the same time, there has been an increasing preoccupation that argues urgent policies for public health neglect social justice. By looking at Portugal's successful confinement case during the early stages of the pandemic, I argue that ethically driven social justice policies are not just compatible but also an instrumentally important element in addressing this pandemic in an effective way. The Portuguese case study suggests that enhancing social justice towards socio-economically vulnerable groups correlates with the prevention of the spread of COVID-19; these benefits to public health can be explained by the fact that those policies create social distancing and less exposure to the COVID-19 virus and other contagious diseases and also remove disincentives to the use of healthcare services.