Pondering the Next Pandemic: Liberty, Justice, and Democracy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The contributions in this volume discuss some of the fundamental debates that emerged during the pandemic. The aim of the authors of this chapter is to reflect on some of these contributions, offer their own perspective on several debates they engage in, and identify areas that will benefit from further attention by both scholars and policymakers. This chapter focuses on two broad issues: personal liberty and global justice. Regarding the former, it takes a more sympathetic view of liberty-restricting measures than some of the other contributors do. It also evaluates the proposal of using selective liberty-restricting measures and encourages a distinction between different kinds of freedom when balancing liberty protection and harm reduction. Regarding global justice, the chapter proposes a human-rights framework as a possible alternative or supplement to a duty-of-easy-rescue framework. It ends by mentioning some areas not much discussed in the current volume which should engage future theoretical thinking about pandemics ethics: the challenge to democracy posed by public health crises, public health governance, and the interests of children.