Page - 325 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Image of the Page - 325 -
Text of the Page - 325 -
325How
Should We Allocate Health and Social Resources During a Pandemic?
safety net, millions took to the roads, often walking hundreds of
kilometres to go home to their ancestral towns and villages. Public
transportation had been shut down. Similar impacts on the poor were
seen in some African countries. Moreover, in many low- and middle-
income countries, police harassment and brutality increased as they
sought to enforce lockdowns. Reports of violence against women and
children also increased around the world.23
In low-income countries, adequate housing, access to clean
water and toilets, household savings, and other COVID-19 prevention
necessities are simply unavailable to millions of people. Moreover,
unlike in high-income countries, COVID-19 is not the only epidemic
to impact many low- and middle-income countries. There are ongoing
epidemics of tuberculosis, malaria, Lassa fever, Ebola, and others. All
of those programs were brought to a halt because of lockdowns. In
fact, as in high-income countries, hospitals situated in low- and mid-
dle-income countries have been converted into COVID-19 hospitals.
The excess mortality in these countries is likely to be enormous, and
many of the gains in infectious disease control are likely to be lost.
The enormous devastation that has been caused, particularly in
low- and middle-income countries, because of the application of the
contain-and-control approach at a national scale have raised funda-
mental questions about the one-size-fits-all approach implicit in sci-
entific guidance. From here on in, it is likely that universal scientific
guidance will not be applied without scrutiny when responding to the
next waves or when dealing with other health issues. When applied
to a small group of people or even to a region, additional burdens
resulting from the contain-and-control approach seem justifiable; it
benefits the greater good. But the appropriateness and effectiveness of
the geometric scaling up to the national level have yet to be evaluated.
This approach has created enormous harms to certain communities,
as well as the population as a whole. In high-income countries, par-
ticularly the United States, the enormous harm to economic activity
has resulted great scepticism of scientific expertise, and even, its clear
rejection by political leadership.
23. “Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response” (19 March 2020),
online: Human Rights Watch <www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/human-rights-
dimensions-covid-19-response>.
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