Philosopher Ben Bayer addresses the FDA’s refusal to approve an inexpensive text for COVID-19. The test can be done at home and yields results in about fifteen minutes. The FDA “justifies” its position by noting that if the tests produce false negatives, then contagious individuals may unknowingly spread the virus. Apparently, the agency believes that…
The west African nation of Senegal is one of the success stories of the pandemic. With only 7 doctors per 100,000 (the United States has almost 300 doctors per 100,000), the nation of 16 million has had just over 14,000 confirmed COVID cases. In contrast, the United States has reported more than 20,000 new cases…
With an election fast approaching, it is not surprising that the pandemic has been a political issue. It is also not surprising that politics is shaping the message being delivered to the American public. Catherine Lynne Troisi, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, writes: [R]ecent actions by the CDC…
On September 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order halting residential evictions until the end of the year for the purpose of slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. In practical terms, this order will be economically devastating to countless landlords and property owners. In moral terms, it represents an attack on…
According to the Wall Street Journal, a growing number of economists and epidemiologists are questioning the wisdom of lockdowns to combact COVID-19. [T]he evidence suggests lockdowns were an overly blunt and economically costly tool. They are politically difficult to keep in place for long enough to stamp out the virus. The evidence also points to…
Imagine for a moment what would happen if the government declared, “Since every individual has the potential to commit a felony crime, we are going to incarcerate everyone.” There would be outrage, protests, and defiance. “That is unjust,” the protestors might proclaim. “You are treating innocent citizens the same as actual criminals.” Yet, in principle,…
One of the mantras repeated by government officials, celebrities, and news anchors during the lockdown has been, “We’re all in this together.” The meaning is clear: Each of us must obey government edicts about wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and washing our hands every thirty minutes. Each of us must suffer and sacrifice in order…
On August 3, Onkar Ghate, ARI senior fellow and chief philosophy officer, was interviewed his white paper, “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease: Planning for the Next Pandemic.” Ghate argues that government has a crucial role to play in a pandemic, but that role should be delimited to testing, isolating the infected, and contact tracing….
Vanity Fair reports that Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and advisor, developed a plan to dramatically and rapidly ramp up testing for the cornavirus. A combination of bureaucratic incompetence, political expediency, and intellectual dishonesty caused that plan to be abandoned. Rather than have states fight each other for scarce diagnostic tests and limited lab capacity,…
Government officials frequently tell us that they are “following the science.” While this may make their decisions seem objective, philosopher Ben Bayer argues that the specialized science–including medicine–don’t settle questions of value. Only the science of morality does that. If we are to move forward, we need leaders who are willing to guide their decisions…
In an article on The Hill, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo explain why the government must develop and implement a pandemic testing strategy. It is the only strategy that protects individual liberty while effectively dealing with a pandemic. “Test, isolate and track” should be the government’s mantra in a pandemic. To protect individual rights, its…