Page - 313 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

CHAPTER D-1 How Should We Allocate Health and Social Resources During a Pandemic? Sridhar Venkatapuram* Abstract In this chapter, I argue that the particular use and applications of two scientific ideas profoundly affected national pandemic responses, including the allocation of resources, with significant harmful impli- cations for social and health equity. First, the familiar “contain and control” approach to infectious diseases was applied maximally by countries (through national lockdowns) and was without precedent. Second, the epidemic forecasting models and modelling that were so influential early on were mono-dimensional; they modelled scenarios of how human bodies will likely spread infections, and of the bio- logical impacts (infected, recovered, or dead) over time. These mod- els erased acute and endemic vulnerabilities, and were not capable of identifying the impacts of policies to reduce virus transmissions on other health and well-being issues, or on other important social domains (for example, the economy). * Associate Professor, King’s College London, UK.