![]() But, to be effective, any measures taken to combat a pandemic impose costs on us all-whether it is wearing a mask when you go out, running an app that potentially undermines your privacy, working from home or, indeed, not being able to work at all. What arguments can be presented for why, given the significant costs a lockdown may impose, it can nevertheless be required? The first thing to note is that, while there is no doubt that COVID-19 will get us all if it can, it is equally clear that its effects vary significantly across individuals-some of those infected will have only relatively mild symptoms or show no symptoms at all, while for others it will result in severe respiratory problems or be fatal. Understanding the complexity of these issues will, we hope, go some way to helping us understand each other and our attitudes toward state responses to the pandemic. Our aim in this brief essay is not to defend a particular policy or attitude toward lockdown measures in the United States or elsewhere, but to consider the scope and limits of different types of arguments that can be offered for them. Without such a response, we will not be able to think clearly about the conditions under which relaxing these restrictions is justified, or about when, should things take a turn for the worse, they should be reinstated. But the question such protestors and others are raising-how the often very significant costs that are being coercively imposed upon populations can be justified-is a sensible one that deserves a reasoned response. 2 There are clear and legitimate concerns about whether the relaxation of lockdown restrictions is premature in the Unites States and many other parts of the world. 1 And in most places governments are indeed beginning to relax, to varying degrees, the very substantial restrictions that lockdown has involved.įor many, a first reaction to the protests was shock at how reckless they seemed, given the continued prevalence of the virus there. In the United States, which currently has many more COVID-19 infections than any other country in the world, some protestors have been gathering to call for these lockdowns to end, and for a return to work. These practices are often collectively referred to as “lockdown.” Few of us enjoy lockdown, and a small minority is furiously protesting against it. Throughout most of the world, significant restrictions have been placed on freedoms to move about, to associate in public, and to be in many public spaces.
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