Page - 564 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE564 Therefore, in the context of a pandemic as significant and unprec- edented as COVID-19, border closures are best regarded as powerful symbolic acts that help governments show they are acting forcefully, even if these actions are not epidemiologically helpful and even if they breach international law. Broad dramatic gestures like border closures can garner political support independent of whether they are effective or legal. Such symbolic acts become ever more instrumen- tally important—and politically valuable—the more a government feels it has insufficient knowledge, tools, or options to address the actual problem it faces in a way that will satisfy the demands of its citizens and critics. Furthermore, border closures have the additional political advantage of implicitly assigning blame for the health emergency to people or governments outside of one’s own country. They dis- courage citizens from reflecting on the frailty of their own country’s public health system or the consequences of past policy choices, like insufficient public health investment, that have led to their vulnerability. The reality of border closures as blame-avoiding symbolic acts means that these decisions must be subject to the usual political con- testation that comes with political decisions in democratic societies. To avoid such political contestation is to deny the accountability of political leaders. The challenge we have seen in the current COVID- 19 pandemic is that governments have justified their border closures by citing expert advice apparently received from epidemiologists and legal counsel. Essentially, political leaders have sought public support for their border closures by asking citizens to defer to government scientists and lawyers. But, of course, these decisions are not based only on science or law. They are political. And as a result, citizens must not acquiesce uncritically. Deferring to government leaders and other authorities on border closures, even in a pandemic emergency, undermines the systems of political accountability on which democ- racies depend. Citizens owe it to themselves to be critical of govern- ments when they take symbolic action for political advantage without regard to immense collateral damage.