TY - JOUR

T1 - When Is Lockdown Justified?

AU - White, Lucie

AU - van Basshuysen, Philippe

AU - Frisch, Mathias

N1 - Funding Information: We are very thankful for the exceedingly thoughtful and comprehensive comments from two anonymous reviewers—which allowed us to significantly improve the paper—and for the financial support of the Volkswagen Foundation.

PY - 2022/4/29

Y1 - 2022/4/29

N2 - How could the initial, drastic decisions to implement “lockdowns” to control the spread of Covid-19 infections be justifiable, when they were made on the basis of such uncertain evidence? We defend the imposition of lockdowns in some countries by, first, looking at the evidence that undergirded the decision (focusing particularly on the decision-making process in the United Kingdom); second, arguing that this provided sufficient grounds to restrict liberty, given the circumstances; and third, defending the use of poorly empirically constrained epidemiological models as tools that can legitimately guide public policy.

AB - How could the initial, drastic decisions to implement “lockdowns” to control the spread of Covid-19 infections be justifiable, when they were made on the basis of such uncertain evidence? We defend the imposition of lockdowns in some countries by, first, looking at the evidence that undergirded the decision (focusing particularly on the decision-making process in the United Kingdom); second, arguing that this provided sufficient grounds to restrict liberty, given the circumstances; and third, defending the use of poorly empirically constrained epidemiological models as tools that can legitimately guide public policy.

UR - https://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/article/view/85

U2 - 10.5195/pom.2022.85

DO - 10.5195/pom.2022.85

M3 - Article

VL - 3

JO - Philosophy of Medicine

JF - Philosophy of Medicine

SN - 2692-3963

IS - 1

ER -