Covid-19 - all power to medical science?

Covid-19 - all power to medical science?

As Covid-19 continues its global advance questions arise as to responses of prevention, containment and management.

The common response seems to be based largely around medical science. Chief medical officers and their ilk advise governments on what can be done and how to do it. This is a proper role of medical science and it is advice that should be sought and respected. All strength be to these medical advisors, as also to the medical scientists working on vaccines and cures. We need this science and should value it. 

And of course, there is a civic obligation to cooperate with public health measures implemented by governments based on the advice that they receive. This post is not a call to civil disobedience on Covid-19 control measures!

However, it is good to ask a wider question: is it wise to cede all power to medical science in the determination of public policy and should public policy be based on it alone?

Responses to and impacts of Covid-19 raise issues beyond medical science. Consider the economic costs and impacts of efforts to contain the virus. And consider the social costs of rising authoritarianism, along with rising fear and suspicion between people and societies. How can these non-economic costs be measured? How do these costs stack up against: (a) the probability of success in containment strategies and, (b) the medical severity of Covid-19 on its victims?

Asking these questions does not downplay the effects of Covid-19 on vulnerable people. These vulnerable ones include the frail aged and young , individuals with compromised health and whole societies that are medically marginal such as the people of Timor Leste. These effects and their costs there are severe and are clearly relevant to response strategies.

However, the question remains of the rightful limits of the scientific contribution to Covid-19. What part do ethical, political and economic values have, alongside medical science, in informing mature responses?

These questions nest within a wider discussion of the proper limits of science. Science is essential and helpful for understanding how the physical world works and how we can intervene in it to advantage, but it has limitations outside of those roles, including in developing and applying ethical values. However, that is a discussion for another day.

Is it really ‘all power to medical science’ when it comes to Covid-19?