Capitalism, COVID-19 and lockdowns

Commentators believe that the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the inconveniences of capitalism and that the end of ?neoliberalism? could be near. In this article we show that a capitalist ethics is capable to deal with the challenges of pandemics and comes with important advantages such as the prevention of overreactions. We apply both utilitarian and rights-based ethics to the case of epidemics in general and COVID-19 in particular. First a libertarian natural law ethics is used to assess the government interventions in the Corona pandemic. We maintain that these interventions cannot be justified from a libertarian point of view despite of the possible objections that are discussed such as the ?potential threat argument?. Moreover, the utilitarian argument in favor of government lockdowns is evaluated. The negative effects of lockdown on mental health, addictions, domestic violence, etc. have to be taken into account. The utilitarian argument in favor of lockdown is far from convincing, as economic calculation is not possible.

Evaluation of Spanish Health System during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Accountability and Wellbeing Results.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge for health systems. For this reason, it is essential to evaluate the management of health systems in the face of the pandemic, identifying the factors that may contribute to its failure or success. This management is more difficult in decentralized countries, since in them, health competencies are distributed among different levels of government. This is the case in Spain, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. Therefore, the aim of this article is to evaluate how the Spanish health system has managed the COVID-19 pandemic. Four factors related to health management are analyzed: transparency, communication, reputation and well-being generated. For this purpose, a quantitative analysis is used with the contrast of secondary sources, such as the Merco rankings or survey data from the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Sociological Research Center). The results show that although the flow of communication about the health system increases considerably, such information comes mainly from the media, with a deficit in the transparency of health management. Likewise, although the reputation of the health system increases at the beginning of the pandemic, as it progresses, there is a deterioration in citizen satisfaction with the healthcare management and the services provided, as well as in the well-being generated by them. This study may have implications for decision making by public authorities regarding the different factors of health management.

COVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria.

In this article, we aim to develop a political economy of mass hysteria. Using the background of COVID-19, we study past mass hysteria. Negative information which is spread through mass media repetitively can affect public health negatively in the form of nocebo effects and mass hysteria. We argue that mass and digital media in connection with the state may have had adverse consequences during the COVID-19 crisis. The resulting collective hysteria may have contributed to policy errors by governments not in line with health recommendations. While mass hysteria can occur in societies with a minimal state, we show that there exist certain self-corrective mechanisms and limits to the harm inflicted, such as sacrosanct private property rights. However, mass hysteria can be exacerbated and self-reinforcing when the negative information comes from an authoritative source, when the media are politicized, and social networks make the negative information omnipresent. We conclude that the negative long-term effects of mass hysteria are exacerbated by the size of the state.