Page - 321 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Image of the Page - 321 -
Text of the Page - 321 -
321How
Should We Allocate Health and Social Resources During a Pandemic?
mental health impairments. The devastating impact reflected in these
chapters is only a partial story. And the argument here is not meant
to lead to the conclusion that governments should not vigorously act
to control pandemics or deploy scientific resources. Rather, much of
the incredible deprivations can be traced back to the lack of sufficient
concern for equity by national leaders, and to the use and expansive
influence of a particular set of scientific ideas and tools. The science
could have been better.
The remaining discussion in this chapter focuses on the large-
scale application of the contain-and-control approach to infectious
diseases, followed by an examination of the use of epidemiological
models and the impact on equity. The fourth section concludes the
chapter.
Contain-and-Control Approach to the Max
The first and foremost national capacity identified by any PPP is epi-
demiology, which is the study of the causes, frequency, and distri-
bution of disease and disability. Epidemiology is the informational
engine that drives all biomedical sciences and health care as well
as public and global health. From infectious disease epidemiology,
we get the standard “contain-and-control” approach to outbreaks.
This approach involves identifying the pathogen, source, or vector
of infections and all carriers; isolating carriers so they do not trans-
mit the infections further; and treating them, if possible. Because the
contain-and-control approach is seen to be so effective, it is the stan-
dard approach. Pathogens, vectors, and routes of transmissions have
an impact on the biological parts and processes, and the treatments
that address infection and biological parts and processes are accepted
as sufficient information. Other biological facts such as age and sex
are also recorded, as they can be important facts when it comes to
documenting transmission, discovering which biological parts and
processes are affected, and determining the natural progression of
disease, behaviours, and so forth.
The contain-and-control approach was applied to the outbreak
in Wuhan, China, but it did not contain the spread of infection. Likely,
the approach was implemented too late, after too many infections had
spread. The decision to quarantine an entire city of over 11 million peo-
ple was decided based on the likelihood that the spread of infection
was beyond a few people, families, or a neighbourhood. And there is
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International