Each One Counts: Pathogen and Policies in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

From the outset, policy response to COVID-19 treated pathogen casualties as somehow more significant than policy casualties (collateral damage, for example from social isolation). The burden of policy interventions, including extended lockdowns and work restrictions, despite ‘all in this together’ rhetoric, was borne unevenly along lines of function and vulnerability. In developing countries starvation risk increased significantly. In evaluating policy outcomes, ‘each one counts’ more adequately reflects the burdens of disease and of policy interventions under a holistic understanding of health (e.g. domains in the WHO definition), and offers a more adequate consideration of risk, burdens, and ordering of social goods.