Ethics in Time of Pandemic

There is a constant, unpredictable and everlasting warfare between humans and bacterium. This war occurs not just between human and bug, but actually also engages every living thing on earth, with each of us in a perpetual state of combat against countless bacteria, parasites and viruses.

In his new book, “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present,” the historian Frank M. Snowden explores the effect of epidemic diseases and how mass infectious outbreaks have shaped our societies. Mass outbreak of diseases – such as smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola – have not only influenced public health and medical science, but also transformed the history, warfare, arts, personal relationships and religion.

In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Snowden says, “epidemics like the coronavirus outbreak are a mirror for humanity, reflecting the moral relationships that people have toward one other.”

The Plague in Rome, 17th century. Museo Storico Nazionale Dell'Arte Sanitaria, Rome.

A pandemic raises several challenging ethical issues. According to The World Health Organization, these include: priority of access to healthcare resources with increased demand and possible shortages; obligations of healthcare workers in light of risks to their own health; and the fine balance between reducing disease spread through isolation and travel measures whilst protecting the right of individuals to freedom of movement.

As the US and large swathes of the world reel under the onslaught of the unabated COVID-19 pandemic since weeks, it reveals profound doubts about our preparedness for the next generation of diseases. It’s essential, and never late, to reflect on ethical concerns related to the planning, preparedness, and responses to pandemics.

Some of the vital steps that public health experts suggest we can take in order to respond to a pandemic include maintaining a focus on public health strategies that could be helpful in controlling the infection, providing affected countries with necessary infrastructure support, acting fast to treat infections and reduce their speed, and reviewing scientific and ethical standards for clinical trials for drugs and vaccines.

Equally important, but the hardest, step is to analytically examine the economic and sociopolitical conditions that create the circumstances for such disease outbreaks occur. 
             

Unless we face these structural problems and honestly consider and implement effective policies and strategies, the global problems such as coronavirus will be boundlessly repeated.

Lessons from a pandemic are instructive, but only if we are willing to learn from them. 

Known unknowns, unknown unknowns, unknown knowns

Is ignorance a thing of laughing at or lamenting the inanity and mental indolence of most of us, or a thing of identifying educational failures which could be remedied?    

Daniel R DeNicola, in his book Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don't Know (MIT Press, 2017), puts ignorance under three categories:

Known unknowns: what we know we don’t know

Unknown unknowns: what we don’t know, we don’t know

Unknown knowns: what we don’t know we know    

Most of us mistakenly see ignorance as just the absence of knowledge. Given that philosophical literature lays more emphasis on having broad discussion on knowledge than ignorance, we think the latter doesn’t warrant weighty philosophical attention.    

It’s philosophically difficult to explain accurately what ignorance is. Even if it is just the absence of knowledge, ignorance has a right for philosophical attention of its own in an expanded array of philosophical debates. 

Bring Our Birds Back

A research published recently by the journal Science suggests that the total breeding population of birds across the United States and Canada has declined by 29 per cent over the last five decades.

Grassland birds are specifically worst hit, with approximately 53 per cent contraction in their population - around 720 million birds. Shorebirds, which were already at precariously low numbers, have lost more than thirty per cent of their population.

The Magpie (1868) by Claude Monet

The findings indicated that of around 2.9 billion birds disappeared since 1970, ninety per cent belong to twelve bird families, including finches, sparrows, swallows, and warblers – widespread, common species that play important roles in food webs and the functioning of ecosystem, from seed dispersal to pest control. Habitat loss is believed to be among the driving factors in these declines of avifauna population.

However, Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and who is also the lead author of the research, has optimistic views about all this. He says, ‘Even if thirty per cent of North America’s birds are lost, there are still seventy per cent left to spur a recovery if conservation measures can be implemented. I don’t think any of these really major declines are hopeless at this point, but that may not be true ten years from now.’

The disappearance of almost three billion birds bespeaks an imminent crisis that we have the ability and means to stop. The need of the hour is to bring a societal shift in the significance and values we place on living alongside healthy and sustainable natural systems.

To begin with, we can do our bit by following some simple actions to help birds, as suggested by the #BringBirdsBack movement, which is spearheaded by various agencies and groups including American Bird Conservancy, Smithsonian, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Georgetown University, which have all come together to create better protections and support for birds.