Ethics and Pandemics Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

This book is for readers who wish to understand the ethical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic — holistically — on communities, politics, the economy, the environment, international relations, public health, and, most importantly, on their own lives and their own futures. It also helps readers to think through the wide-ranging ethical implications of the new age of global pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed all of our lives to such an extent that no single publication will ever be able to capture its complexity. The book acknowledges this complexity by embracing interdisciplinary dialogue. It is open to diverse points of view, different ethical systems, and a wide variety of academic disciplines. It suggests three broad avenues to exploring the subject:

• Ethics for Pandemics: What ethical theories are useful for pandemic living?
• Ethics in Pandemics: How are long-standing ethical dilemmas revealed in pandemics?
• Ethics of Pandemics: How should politicians and public health professionals create ethical systems of pandemic management?

Interdisciplinary perspectives are another key feature of the book and reflect the important insights that many academic disciplines — medical ethics and public health, history, political science, economics, behavioral and evolutionary psychology, and climate science — bring to bear on the subject.

In the chapters, the author joins theory and practice, providing an overview of the major ethical theories:

• Kant and Deontology
• Utilitarianism and Consequentialist Ethics
• Social Contract Theory
• Egoism and Altruism
• Virtue Ethics

It then uses these theories to analyze both COVID-19 and also historical pandemics, including typhus, smallpox, the Black Death, HIV/AIDS, and polio.

Ethics and Pandemics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and Future Pandemics prepares readers to better understand ethical living during times of crisis. While written for students pursuing any discipline, it is particularly suited for those seeking degrees in public health, health care, political science, and philosophy. Furthermore, non-specialized readers and members of the general public will find the book of interest.

Andrew Sola earned his Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.  From 2004 to 2018, he was Professor of Philosophy and English at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he taught philosophy, ethics, and English at a variety of locations in the UK, Italy, and Germany.  His publications include scholarly articles on military ethics as well as philosophy.  He is the co-author with PGA Professional Bruce Loome of The Philosophical Golfer, a two-volume history of philosophy.  He is currently Professor of Business English at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, where he also teaches business ethics.  He is a member of the board of Hamburg’s German-American Institute, the Amerikazentrum, where he produces the interdisciplinary podcast, The Trans-Atlanticist.