Ethics of Surveillance, Isolation, and Social Distancing

Last Updated 08/04/2020

Op-Eds and Blog Posts

• Lucie White, “We Need to Talk About Corona Apps,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, July 30, 2020.
• Farbod Akhlaghi, “Your Freedom Really Matters. So What?” Practical Ethics Blog, July 23, 2020.
• Dena S. Davis, “Before We Turn to Digital Contact Tracing for COVID, Remember Surveillance in the Sixties,” Bioethics Forum, July 10, 2020.
• F.M. Kamm, “Moral Reasoning in a Pandemic,” Boston Review, July 6, 2020.
• Natalie Kofler and Françoise Baylis, “Immunity Passports – Reopening the Economy and Repackaging Racism,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, July 1, 2020.
• Travis N. Rieder, “The Ethics of Social Distancing (and Why It Doesn’t Rule Out Protesting),” Daily Nous, June 24, 2020.
• Franklin G. Miller, “Lockdown of the Elderly is Misguided Policy,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, June 23, 2020.
• Austin Lam, “COVID, Systemic Racism Protests, Anti-Lockdown Protests: Making Sense of it All,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, June 11, 2020.
• Jonathan Cohen, “Individual Freedom or Public Health?” A False Choice in the COVID Era,” Bioethics Forum, June 9, 2020.
• Ezio Di Nucci, “Herd Immunity and Lifting Lockdowns: A New Trolley Problem?” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, June 9, 2020.
• Rob Gatter and Seema Mohapatra, “COVID-19, Mask Requirements, and Racial Discrimination,” Petrie-Flom Blog, June 5, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis and Natalie Kofler, “Immunity Passports Highlight Inequities Among Races, Classes,” Healthy Debate, June 3, 2020.
• Natalie Kofler and Françoise Baylis, “Reopening Canada While Protecting Public Health,” Impact Ethics, June 1, 2020.
• Roger Crisp, “Pandemic Ethics: Utilitarianism and the Lockdown,” Practical Ethics Blog, May 21, 2020.
• Nicholas G. Evans, “The Ethics of Social Distancing,” The Philosophers Magazine, May 18, 2020.
• Ben Colburn, “Autonomy under Lockdown,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, May 18, 2020.
• Rebecca Brown et al., “How Much Certainty is Enough? Immunity Passports and COVID-19,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, May 11, 2020.
• Govind Persad and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, “What are the Ethics Behind COVID-19 ‘Immunity Passports’? The Washington Post, May 10, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis and Natalie Kofler, “Why Canadians Should Fight Tooth and Nail Against Proof-of-Immunity Cards,” CBC News, May 7, 2020.
• Jonathan Wolff, “Lockdown Life and Liberty: When do Emergency Measures Turn into Dangerous Government Overreach?” Times Literary Supplement, May 7, 2020.
• Alberto Giubilini, “Contract-tracing Apps and the Future COVID-19 Vaccination Should be Compulsory. Social, Technological, and Pharmacological Immunisation,” Practical Ethics Blog, May 6, 2020.
• Craig Klugman, “Who Has a Right to Know A Person is COVID Positive: Lessons from HIV,” Bioethics.net, May 6, 2020.
• Olivia S. Kates, “Show Me Your Passport: Ethical Concerns About COVID-19 Antibody Testing as Key to Reopening Public Life,” Bioethics Forum, May 5, 2020.
• G. Owen Schaefer and Angela Ballantyne, “Downloading COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps is a Moral Obligation,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, May 4, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis and Natalie  Kofler, “COVID-19 Immunity Testing: A Passport to Inequity,” Issues in Science and Technology, April 29, 2020.
• Neil Pickering, “Law and Ethics in the Time of COVID-19,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, April 29, 2020.
• Travis N. Reider et al., “When to Reopen the Nation is an Ethics Question – Not Only a Scientific One,” Bioethics Forum, April 28, 2020.
• Laura Cabrera, “The Promises and Perils of Using Collective Data to Monitor COVID-19,” MSU Bioethics, April 23, 2020.
• Alex Dubov and Steven Shoptaw, “The Value and Ethics of Using Technology to Contain the COVID-19 Epidemic,” Bioethics.net, April 23, 2020.
• Julian Savulescu and James Cameron, “Why Lock Down of the Elderly is not Ageist and Why Levelling Down Equality is Wrong,” Journal of Medical Ethics Blog, April 21, 2020.
• Daniel Weinstock, “A Harm Reduction Approach to Physical Distancing,” Policy for Pandemics, April 21, 2020.
• “Restarting America Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It?” The New York Times Magazine, April 10, 2020.
• Robert L. Tsai, “Inequality During a Pandemic, Part I: Shared Suffering and Self-Quarantine,” Harvard Law Review Blog, April 9, 2020.
• Peter Singer and Michael Plant, “When Will the Pandemic Cure Be Worse Than the Disease?” Project Syndicate, April 6, 2020.
• Daniel W. Tigard, “COVID-19 ‘Immunity Passports’ and Dystopian Segregation: A Few Concerns,” Bioethics.net, April 6, 2020.
• Regina Rini, “When to Think Like a Utilitarian,” Times Literary Supplement, April 1, 2020.
• Verina Wild et al., “Responding to the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Experiences of an Ad Hoc Public Health Ethics Consultation,” Journal of the Medical Ethics Blog, April 1, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis, “Coronavirus: The Watchword is Solidarity, not Autonomy,” Impact Ethics, March 24, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis, “Coronavirus: When Canadian Compassion Requires Social Distancing,” The Conversation, March 16, 2020.
• Françoise Baylis, “Coronavirus in Vietnam: Observations from a Canadian,” Impact Ethics, March 10, 2020.
• Jonathan Pugh and Tom Douglas, “Pandemic Ethics: Infectious Pathogen Control Measures and Moral Philosophy,” Practical Ethics Blog, March 16, 2020.

Policy Briefs

• Robert Ranisch et al., Ethics of Digital Contract Tracing Apps for the COVID-19 Pandemic Response, June 2020.
• The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, COVID-19 Antibody Testing and “Immunity Certification,” June 18, 2020.
• Justin Bernstein et al., An Ethics Framework for the COVID-19 Reopening Process, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the SNF Agora Institute, May 27, 2020.
• Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience: Massive Scale Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation as the Path to Pandemic Resilience for a Free Society, April 20, 2020.
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Ethical Considerations in Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 17, 2020.
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Guide to the Ethics of Surveillance and Quarantine for Novel Coronavirus, February 10, 2020.
• The Hastings Center, Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions.

Academic Articles

• Cristian Timmermann, “Epistemic Ignorance, Poverty and the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Asian Bioethics Review, July 30, 2020.
• Thomas D. Harter, “Ethical Considerations for ‘Reopening’ Health Care Organizations Amid COVID-19,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Hon-Lam Li, Nancy S. Jecker, and Roger Yat-Nork Chung, “Reopening Economies during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Tradeoffs,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Roger Yat-Nork Chung et al., “Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Diane DiEuliis and James Giordano, “The Shield and Sword of Biosecurity: Balancing the Ethics of Public Safety and Global Preparedness,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Vardit Ravitsky and Daniel Weinstock, “Are Immunity Licenses Just?” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Anne Sullivan, Sadath Sayeed, and Christy L. Cummings, “Beyond Ventilators and Prematurity: Most Rationing Dilemmas Are Morally Fraught,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Colleen M. Berryessa, “Compassionate Release as a ‘Right’ in the Age of COVID-19,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Takunda Matose and Elizabeth Lanphier, “Rights Don’t Stand Alone: Responsibility for Rights in a Pandemic,” The American Journal of Bioethics, July 27, 2020.
• Muhammed O. Afolabi et al., “Lessons from the Ebola Epidemics and their Applications for COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Developing World Bioethics, July 12, 2020.
• Sanjay G. Reddy, “Population Health, Economics, and Ethics in the Age of COVID-19,” BMJ Global Health, July 15, 2020.
• Colleen M. Flood, Bryan Thomas, and Kumanan Wilson, “Civil Liberties vs. Public Health,” in Vulnerable: The Law, Policy, and Ethics of COVID-19, edited by Colleen Flood et al., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, July 14, 2020.
• Teresa Scassa, Jason Millar, and Kelly Bronson, “Privacy, Ethics, and Contact-Tracing Apps,” in Vulnerable: The Law, Policy, and Ethics of COVID-19, edited by Colleen Flood et al., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, July 14, 2020.
• Daniel Weinstock and Vardit Ravitsky, “Should Immunity Licenses be an Ingredient in our Policy Response to COVID-19,” in Vulnerable: The Law, Policy, and Ethics of COVID-19, edited by Colleen Flood et al., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, July 14, 2020.
• Terry Skolnik, “The Punitive Impact of Physical Distancing Laws on Homeless People,” in Vulnerable: The Law, Policy, and Ethics of COVID-19, edited by Colleen Flood et al., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, July 14, 2020.
• Yves Le Bouthillier and Delphine Nekache, “The Rights of Citizens Abroad to Return During a Pandemic,” in Vulnerable: The Law, Policy, and Ethics of COVID-19, edited by Colleen Flood et al., Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, July 14, 2020.
• Sanja Ivic, “Vietnam’s Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak,” Asian Bioethics Review, July 10, 2020.
• Mark J. Russ, Dominic Sisti, and Philip J. Wilner, “When Patients Refuse COVID-19 Testing, Quarantine, and Social Distancing in Inpatient Psychiatry: Clinical and Ethical Challenges,” Journal of Medical Ethics, July 10, 2020.
• Meghna Ann Arunachalam and Aarti Halwai, “An Analysis of the Ethics of Lockdown in India,” Asian Bioethics Review, July 9, 2020.
• David M. Studdert and Mark A. Hall, “Disease Control, Civil Liberties, and Mass Testing – Calibrating Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” New England Journal of Medicine, July 9, 2020.
• Michele Loi, “How to Fairly Incentivise Digital Contact Tracing,” Journal of Medical Ethics, July 9, 2020.
• Diego S. Silva and Maxwell J. Smith, “Social Distancing, Social Justice, and Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Canadian Journal of Public Health, July 8, 2020.
• Francesca Bellazzi and Konrad v. Boyneburgk, “COVID-19 Calls for Virtue Ethics,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, July 7, 2020.
• Carmel Shachar, Sara Gerke, and Eli Y. Adashi, “AI Surveillance during Pandemics: Ethical Implementation Imperatives,” Hastings Center Report, June 29, 2020.
• Nicole Martinez-Martin et al., “Digital Contact Tracing, Privacy, and Public Health,” Hastings Center Report, June 29, 2020.
• Ruipeng Lei and Renzong Qiu, “A Strategy to Prevent and Control Zoonoses?” Hastings Center Report, June 29, 2020.
• Lance Gable, Natalie Ram, and Jeffrey L. Ram, “Legal and Ethical Implications of Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 Monitoring for COVID-19 Surveillance,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, June 24, 2020.
• Julian Savulescu and James Cameron, “Why Lockdown of the Elderly is Not Ageist and Why Levelling Down Equality is Wrong,” Journal of Medical Ethics, June 19, 2020.
• Suerie Moon et al., “Continued Confinement of Those Most Vulnerable to COVID-19,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, June 17, 2020.
• Stephen John, “The Ethics of Lockdown: Communication, Consequences, and the Separateness of Persons,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, June 17, 2020.
• Matthew Bennett, “Should I Do as I’m Told? Trust, Experts, and COVID-19,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, June 17, 2020.
• Eric Winsberg, Jason Brennan, and Chris W. Surprenant, “How Government Leaders Violated Their Epistemic Duties during the SARS-CoV-2 Crisis,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, June 17, 2020.
• Thaddeus Metz, “What Does an African Ethic of Social Cohesion Entail for Social Distancing?” Developing World Bioethics, June 8, 2020.
• Kunal Vakharia, “The Right to Know: Ethical Implications of Antibody Testing for Healthcare Workers and Overlooked Societal Implications,” Journal of Medical Ethics, June 3, 2020.
• Henry T. Greely, “COVID-19 Immunity Certificates: Science, Ethics, Policy, and Law,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, May 28, 2020.
• Vicki Xafis et al., “The Perfect Moral Storm: Diverse Ethical Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Asian Bioethics Review, May 28, 2020.
• Jessica Morley et al., “Ethical Guidelines for COVID-19 Tracing Apps,” Nature, May 28, 2020.
• I. Glenn Cohen, Lawrence O. Gostin, and Daniel J. Weitzner, “Digital Smartphone Tracking for COVID-19: Public Health and Civil Liberties in Tension,” JAMA, May 27, 2020.
• Matti Häyry, “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Healthcare Crisis Leadership as Ethics Communication,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, May 22, 2020.
• Natalie Kofler and Françoise Baylis, “Ten Reasons Why Immunity Passports are a Bad Idea,” Nature, May 21, 2020.
• Julian Savulescu, Ingmar Perrson, and Dominic Wilkinson, “Utilitarianism and the Pandemic,” Bioethics, May 20, 2020.
• Amy Fairchild, Lawrence Gostin, and Ronald Bayer, “Vexing, Veiled, and Inequitable: Social Distancing and the ‘Rights’ Divide in the Age of COVID-19,” The American Journal of Bioethics, May 19, 2020.
• Alex Dubov and Steven Shoptaw, “The Value and Ethics of Using Technology to Contain the COVID-19 Epidemic,” The American Journal of Bioethics, May 18, 2020.
• Vera Lucia Raposo, “Can China’s ‘Standard of Care’ for COVID-19 be Replicated in Europe?” Journal of Medical Ethics, May 18, 2020.
• Michelle M. Mello and C. Jason Wang, “Ethics and Governance for Digital Disease Surveillance,” Science, May 11, 2020.
• Natalie Ram and David Gray, “Mass Surveillance in the Age of COVID-19,” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, May 8, 2020.
• Ole F. Norheim, “Protecting the Population with Immune Individuals,” Nature Medicine, May 7, 2020.
• Govind Persad and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, “The Ethics of COVID-19 Immunity-Based Licenses (‘Immunity Passports’),” JAMA, May 6, 2020.
• Mark A. Hall and David M. Studdert, “Privileges and Immunity Certification During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” JAMA, May 6, 2020.
• Alexandra L. Phelan, “COVID-19 Immunity Passports and Vaccination Certificates: Scientific, Equitable, and Legal Challenges,” The Lancet, May 4, 2020.
• Michael J. Parker et al., “Ethics of Instantaneous Contract Tracing Using Mobile Phone Apps in the Control of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Journal of Medical Ethics, May 4, 2020.
• Lawrence O. Gostin and Lindsay F. Wiley, “Government Public Health Powers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stay-at-Home Orders, Business Closures, and Travel Restrictions,” JAMA, April 2, 2020.
• Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, and Sarah A. Wetter, “Responding to COVID-19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically,” Hastings Center Report (March-April 2020).
• Joseph A. Lewnard and Nathan C. Lo, “Scientific and Ethical Basis for Social-Distancing Interventions Against COVID-19,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, March 23, 2020.
• Zackary D. Berger et al., “COVID-19: Control Measures Must be Equitable and Inclusive,” BMJ, March 20, 2020.
• Maxwell Smith and Ross Upshur, “Pandemic Disease, Public Health, and Ethics,” in The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics, edited by Anna C. Mastroianni, Jeffrey P. Kahn, and Nancy E. Kass (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).
• Nancy Baum, Peter Jacobson, and Susan Goold, “‘Listen to the People:’ Public Deliberation About Social Distancing Measures in a Pandemic,” American Journal of Bioethics 9 (2009): 4-14.