Pandemic Ethics

In this episode, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and I discuss the racial wealth divide in the United States and the role historical injustice plays in determining vulnerability during the pandemic. With the crisis threatening to exacerbate economic and health disparities, what policies can ensure a more just and secure post-Covid society? Hosted by Joshua Preiss, Director of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Minnesota State University, Mankato and the author of Just Work for All: The American Dream in the 21st Century (Routledge 2020).

With recent announcements of successful vaccine trials, perhaps the central ethical question of the pandemic is how to fairly and equitably distribute vaccines as they become available. This episode considers the principles that ought to govern the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, and the ways that existing models and plans fail to show equal moral concern for those most vulnerable to harm. My guest is Florencia Luna, Director of Bioethics at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Argentina.

My guest is Katharina Pistor, the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia University and the author of Code of Capital. We discuss the role of property law in generating wealth, inequality and (in)security, privileging the interests and assets of powerful economic actors in times of crisis. In addition, we consider debt relief and other policies that may be essential to a rapid and inclusive post-Covid economic recovery. For more information, including complementary readings, visit pandemic-ethics.com.

In the inaugural episode of the Pandemic Ethics podcast, Jonathan Wolff (Oxford) and I discuss the ways in which ethics can inform public policy, the principles that ought to govern policy during the pandemic, and what we owe to those who take on additional risk to provide essential services during the pandemic. For more information, including complementary readings, visit pandemic-ethics.com.