Page - 279 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

279Should Immunity Licences be an Ingredient in our Policy Response to COVID-19? learning. These tools should be assessed based on their capacity to help us safely navigate this new risk environment, as well as with respect to their compatibility with core moral values of our liberal democratic society, such as freedom, equality, and transparency of the political process.1 Since many of the dilemmas facing us involve a tension between safety, on the one hand, and freedom (for example, forcing confinement) or equality (for example accepting the differ- ential impact of these restrictions on people’s lives) on the other, a key principle of public health ethics during this challenging period will be the least  infringement principle, which says that “a proposed policy … should seek to minimize the infringement of general moral considerations.”2 We interpret this principle as applying to both free- dom and equality as fundamental values. Policies will be justified if they represent the least offensive ways, relative to these core values, to attain the policy goal of limiting virus spread. Immunity Licences One of the tools currently at the centre of discussions is immunity pass- ports, more appropriately referred to as “immunity licences.”3 These would be conferred on individuals who are found to have immunity to the disease based on a serological test, and would grant their holders the right to return to normal life while continuing to restrict those who do not possess immunity. The advantages are clear. Immunity licences would allow a portion of the population to safely work, travel, and engage in social and cultural activities of various kinds. A significant proportion of the population of most countries going back to work without risk would benefit all of us, since we have all suffered from the economic downturn wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given what seems to be a strong prima facie case, why then have immunity licences ignited such controversy? In this chapter, we 1. For the importance of democratic norms in the context of pandemics, see Vanessa MacDonnell, this volume, Chapter B-1. 2. James Childress et al, “Public Health Ethics: Mapping the Terrain” (2002) 30:2 JL Med & Ethics 170 at 170-78. 3. Persad and Emanuel persuasively argue that “licence” is a better term than “passport,” as the latter term implies an all-or-nothing access to a territory, whereas licences are granted in specific contexts, for specific purposes. Govind Persad & Ezekiel Emanuel, “The Ethics of COVID-19 Immunity-Based Licenses (‘Immunity Passports’)” (6 May 2020), online: JAMA Network <jamanetwork. com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765836>.