Public health priority setting: A case for priority to the worse off in well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

Etikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In Norway, priority for health interventions is assigned on the basis of three official criteria: health benefit, resources, and severity. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have mainly happened through intersectoral public health efforts such as lockdowns, quarantines, information campaigns, social distancing and, more recently, vaccine distribution. The aim of this article is to evaluate potential priority setting criteria for public health interventions. We argue in favour of the following three criteria for public health priority setting: benefit, resources and improving the well-being of the worse off. We argue that benefits and priority to the worse off may reasonably be understood in terms of individual well-being, rather than only health, for public health priority setting. We argue that lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic support our conclusions. Keywords: COVID-19, Prioritarianism, Priority Setting, Public Health, Severity

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Pandemic prioritarianism.Lasse Nielsen - 2022 - Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (4):236-239.
Balancing small against large burdens.Alex Voorhoeve - 2018 - Behavioural Public Policy 2 (1):125-142.
Lifetime QALY prioritarianism in priority setting.Trygve Ottersen - 2013 - Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (3):175-180.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-12-05

Downloads
18 (#711,820)

6 months
9 (#145,127)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mathias Barra
Akershus University Hospital

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Just Health: Meeting Health Needs Fairly.Norman Daniels - 2007 - Cambridge University Press.
Consequentialism.Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Well-Being.Roger Crisp - 2017 - In Edward N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.

View all 13 references / Add more references