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PANDEMICS AND THE FUTURE OF ETHICS IN DEMOCRACIES 

Columbus N. OGBUJAH Ph.D. & Nympha U. NKAMA 

Abstract 

The declaration of a disease as a pandemic not only shows the explosive magnitude of 

its geographic spread, but the intensity of its impact on human lives arising from its high 

attack rate. The impacts of the current COVID-19 (coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) disease 

is but a reminder of the life-threatening power of all pandemics, as well as their negative 

influence, especially within the economic and health sectors of the world. Besides 

human suffering and death induced directly by epidemics or indirectly by attendant 

economic strangulation, there is the issue of government mitigation efforts and control. 

At some point, measures of containment seem to fail the ethical tests of: respect for 

autonomy, the principle of beneficence, the principle of non-maleficence, and the 

principle of justice, thereby imperiling the democratic gains of societies. In this article, 

we discussed the impactful influence of pandemics on individual and social lives; we 

highlighted some well-intentioned but unethical interventions of governments to combat 

this menace. Following the hermeneutic and analytic methods, we conclusively argued 

that the intrusive nature of some government interventions stifle liberal principles, and 

imperil much of the gains of developing democracies.  

Introduction 

For the most part, scholars have identified people's choices for varying forms of 

governments across the ages. Plato, for instance, frequently iterated his five-fold 

categories of government, arising from one ruler (royalty and tyranny), few rulers 

(aristocracy and oligarchy), and many rulers (democracy) (Plato's Statesman 302c-d). 

While he regards constitutional monarchy as the best of all (Statesman 302e), he 

considers democracy as the worst, for “the government of the multitude is weak in all 

respects and able to do nothing great, either good or bad, when compared with the other 

forms of government” (Statesman 303a). Aristotle adapted these in his three-fold 

categories with corresponding correct and deviant forms: if sovereignty resides in one 

person, it is Royalty. Its perverted form is Tyranny. If sovereignty resides in a small set 

of the population, it is Aristocracy. If this small set uses the sovereignty for its own 

selfish interests, it is Oligarchy. If the sovereign power resides in a large proportion of 

the population, it is polity or constitutional government. Its perverted form is 

Democracy (Politics III.7. 1279b). Thus, in both Plato and Aristotle, democracy, as 

propelled by the peculiar interests of the needy, is a perverse form of government. 



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In political history, the ancient Greece was the first to create a democracy. As 

arising from the concepts demos (people) and kratos (rule), democracy encapsulates the 

idea that the ordinary people should take active roles in the governance of their land, 

either directly or indirectly through elected representatives. In whichever form it is 

practiced, the overriding core lies in the idea that people have a voice; a say in the 

determination of their fortunes―good or bad. The Athenian direct democracy which 

developed around the 5th century BCE is different from its present-day practice not only 

because of its directness (which allows every citizen to vote on every law), but because 

of its segregatory system of delineating citizenship: only free men were considered 

citizens in Athens. Women, children, slaves, peasants and foreigners were not 

considered citizens and therefore could not participate in the democratic process 

(Aristotle, Politics, VII. 8 & 9, 1328-1329). 

At different times, there have arisen leading socio-political structures with 

varying ethical implications on the citizen. In the Hellenistic world, the rule of the 

Divine King helped the flourishing of aristocracy up to the time of the Roman Empire 

and beyond. This was overtly a divisive and oppressive structure which was open to 

frequent abuses, since the people's fortune depended on the whims of the monarch. But 

a turning point came with the intellectual evolution of the Enlightenment, when 

individual efforts coalesced into powerful revolutionary movements that in time 

dismantled various forms of monarchical establishments. Prior to, and serving as a 

catalyst to the enlightenment was the 1688 Glorious Revolution in England which, by 

limiting the constitutional power of the monarch and establishing the principle of 

'consent of the governed', among other things, laid the foundation for the rise of modern 

liberal democracy (Ogbujah, 2020). This goaded the 1776 formation of the New World 

on liberal principles, and the French Revolution of 1789 which completely overthrew 

hereditary aristocracy. Although challenged by different competing ideologies over 

the centuries, liberal inclusive principles have continued to expand the frontiers of 

social harmony, democracy and growth. 

As the world was hit by the scourge of COVID-19 pandemic, there seems to be, 

even among developed democracies, a rollback of some key democratic principles, 

such as the prioritization of 'the consent of the governed', inclusivity in decision 

making and implementation of containment measures, equal opportunity within the 

law, and the limiting of the constitutional powers of heads of governments. Rather 

than uplifting these key liberal ingredients, various heads of governments, by likening 

pandemics to war situations, have activated emergency rules, rolling out oppressive 

and divisive guidelines reminiscent of aristocratic era. Some have, like medieval 

monarchs, locked down whole cities without palliatives, leading to untold sufferings 

and deaths; others utilized the opportunity to fleece the common wealth with bogus 

intervention claims. At other times, and because of paucity of medical supplies, health 

workers have sat in judgment regarding who lives and who dies. Given experts' 

prediction regarding the mutation of this virus, and the possibility of the recurrence 

of pandemics in the near future, it has become essential to pause awhile to examine 

our responses so far. This, perhaps, might be the starting point to saving world 



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democracies from profligacy of political elites, and from sliding back to discredited 

authoritarian regimes. In the following paragraphs, we shall underline how some 

governments' intrusive interventions fail basic ethical tests for legitimacy, stifle liberal 

principles, imperil democratic gains of developing nations, and portend danger to the 

future of ethics in world democracies.  

Meaning and Manifestations of Pandemics 

Along historical lines, there seems to have emerged a pluriformity of ideas regarding 

the meaning of pandemic and how to identify it when it occurs. This reality was not 

helped by the sudden emergence of the novel H1N1 (Hemagglutin Neuraminidases) 

disease, and the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s policy documents over the years. 

In his incisive article – “The elusive definition of pandemic influenza,” Peter Doshi 

(2011) uses the WHO pandemic influenza guidelines, 1999–2009 to buttress his thesis, 

claiming that, at best, what the world body bequeaths to us is a descriptive-definition. 

For him, the WHO has inexplicably refrained from offering a formal quotable definition 

of pandemic influenza. What its recurrent pandemic preparedness guidelines do is to 

provide insights into what could be classified as “pandemic phase” definitions (p. 533). 

But in contrast to, and much direct response to Doshi, Kelly admits of the existence of 

generally acceptable definition of pandemic. In the article, “The classical definition of 

a pandemic is not elusive,” he accuses Doshi of sidestepping the classical 

epidemiological definition of a pandemic in arriving at his conclusions (2011, p. 540). 

Citing Last (2000), Kelly admits that a pandemic is classically defined as “an epidemic 

occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and 

usually affecting a large number of people.” While this definition includes nothing about 

population immunity, virology or disease severity, it emphasizes the factor of 

“simultaneous worldwide transmission.” For Kelly, the capacity for 'simultaneous 

worldwide transmission' of an influenza is sufficient to define it as a pandemic, although 

there exists the possibility to further amplify its potential range in terms of 

transmissibility and disease severity. 

Generally, the WHO declares an influenza pandemic if it meets 'hard to bend', 

clearly defined virological and epidemiological criteria. From its descriptive retinue, it 

is clear there is always a mixture of different criteria, ranging from wider global 

dissemination, to disease severity and to novelty. This trivet-like structure has somewhat 

conditioned most modern understandings of pandemics. Etymologically coined from 

the Greek pándēmos―pan (all) and demos (the people), pandemic is commonly used to 

refer to a widespread epidemic of contagious disease throughout the whole of a country 

or one or more continents at the same time (Honigsbaum, 2009). It is an outbreak of 

disease that becomes widespread as a result of the spread of human-to-human infection. 

In simple terms, an epidemic is declared a pandemic if its occurrence is worldwide, or 

over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large 

number of people (Last, 2000). 

Up from the 17th century, the terms pandemic and epidemic have been used 

interchangeably within social and medical cycles. Morens, Folkers and Fauci (2009) 



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allude that the first identified use of the term 'pandemic' was in Harvey's 1666 reference 

to “a Pandemick, or Endemick, or rather a Vernacular Disease (a disease always 

reigning in a Countrey).” This equiparation subsisted along the centuries, and was 

accentuated by Noah Webster's recognition of their synonymous structure in his 1828 

first edition of Webster's Dictionary. Although Webster witnessed the 1789 – 1790 

influenza pandemic, he listed it in his dictionary merely as an epidemic. Thus, the 19th 

and early 20th centuries were bequeathed with the use of the term epidemic as 

representing both epidemic and pandemic. But with increase in migration induced by 

industrial revolution, and the attendant increasing spread of diseases, there was a 

proportional increase in scientific understanding of the pattern of disease' spread. The 

1831 – 1832 cholera pandemic was the first to be witnessed globally (from Asia through 

to Europe) for more than a year. This experience restructured people's understanding of 

epidemic, such that when the 1889 influenza pandemic occurred, the idea of what a 

pandemic meant was already latent. By 1918, the term had entered into general use. 

Although the 1889 and 1918 influenza pandemics inspired much of the current 

usage of the term, they also opened the way to a more loosely use of the concept to 

commonly denote large-scale occurrences of non-influenza infections―chronic and 

lifestyle associated diseases. In this sense, its meaning falls back to the general 

understanding of almost anything that increased in and appeared to spread within or 

among groups of people, such as smoking, traffic accidents, factory closings and even 

fear (Morens et al. 2009, p. 1019). At some point, it became fashionable to speak of 

“smoking pandemic”, or “narcotics pandemic”, etc. Indeed, as an adjective, pandemic 

means something “general” and “universal,” but often with a negative connotation. Its 

adjectival usage lends credence to the seeming universality of pandemics in 

contradistinction to epidemics. Although seasonal epidemics can affect large number of 

people across national borders, they are not classified as pandemics. Pandemic is an 

“extensive epidemic” ― epidemic over a very wide area and usually affecting a large 

proportion of the population and distributed and occurring widely throughout a region, 

country, continentally, or globally (Morens, et al., 2009). 

Following a thematized structure in response to the question: what is a 

pandemic?, it becomes clear that for any disease to be classified as such, it must share 

some key features, namely:  wide geographical extension (trans-regional or global); 

disease movement (spread); high attack rates and explosiveness (active multiple cases 

appearing within a short time); minimal population immunity (most people are 

susceptible), novelty (often associated with new diseases or at least novel variants of 

old ones), infectious / contagious (easily spread from person or vector to person); and 

severe (disease severity is often measured by the ratio of fatalities) (Morens, et al., 

2009). The notion of pandemic as thus, elucidated, is a spectacle that has historically 

applied to the outbreak of diseases of very different etiologies that exhibit a variety of 

epidemiological features. But following the 2009 stipulations of WHO's pandemic 

preparedness plan, it is not difficult to situate a pandemic agent within the class of 

epidemics sharing these common denominators: highly infectious, must be new, must 

spread easily, and must cause serious illness (World Health Organization, 2009). 



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Besides other variables, these epidemiologic features have largely delineated the 

manifestation of pandemics down the centuries. 

 This descriptive analysis makes it possible, in spite of the daunting challenge of 

structuring a widely acceptable definition of pandemic, to categorise a disease as 

pandemic based on a spectrum of etiologies, mechanisms of spread, and breadth or 

coverage. Such diseases include the Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis (AHC), 

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Cholera, Dengue, Influenza, Plague, 

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Scabies, West Nile Diseases, Tuberculosis, 

Spanish flu, Hong Kong flu, H7N9, Ebola and Zika (Morens, et al., 2009; Rewar, et al., 

2015). The nouveau Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic is currently ravaging the 

world. As at July 16, 2021, 07:21 GMT, there are 4,083,260 deaths out of the 

189,750,213 confirmed cases across 220 countries and territories worldwide 

(Worldometer, 2021). As fatality rate increases by the seconds, people are becoming 

apprehensive, hoping for not a repeat of the “Spanish flu” catastrophe.  

In the main, since the 1500s, it does seem pandemics have struck at least three 

times in every century. In the 20th century, the three major influenza 

pandemics―“Spanish flu” (1918 – 1919); “Asian flu” (1957 – 1958); and “Hong Kong 

flu” (1968 – 1969) inflicted a lot of harm on human life and economic development. Of 

late, Gostin and research associates (2016) identified Hantavirus Pulmonary 

Syndrome; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS); H5N1 Influenza; H1N1 

Influenza; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS); and Ebola Virus Disease as six 

large scale outbreaks of influenza pandemics in recent years. The spread and impact of 

the current COVID-19 seems to dwarf the sway of these six, even though since 2016, 

Zika Virus has continued to threaten the health of people in 34 countries (Troncoso, 

2016).  

Impactful Influence of Pandemics on Individual and Social Lives 

It is often impossible to fully quantify the wreck of highly pathogenic infectious disease 

pandemic on social life. Besides inducing sickness and sometimes massive fatality for 

those directly affected, and perhaps, beyond the overall strain on the global 

socioeconomic and political wellbeing, it is essential to pay attention to ethical issues 

arising from the implementation of containment processes. Pandemics, in general, pose 

major health, social, and economic risks to several countries of the world, and in 

consequence, threaten the stability of civilized life. 

In the area of health, pathogenic pandemics have infected hundreds of millions 

of people causing severe ailments and deaths. For instance, in the 14th century, the 'black 

death' (bubonic plague pandemic) ― the most fatal pandemic recorded in human 

history, is estimated to have killed about half of European population, and a third of the 

entire world population (Aberth, 2010; Howard, 2020). The next in causing fatality is 

perhaps, the Smallpox. Although famed to have originated in the 3rd century BCE, its 

manifestation in the 18th century Europe caused a lot of death. Those who survived had 

extensive skin scars or were left blind (Hays, 2005; CDC, 2016). On the whole, 



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Smallpox caused about 300 million fatalities in the 20th century (Henderson, 2011). This 

was followed in magnitude by the 1918-1920 Spanish flu which is estimated to have 

killed between 20 and 50 million people across the globe (Ghosh et al., 2010). In the 

course of research, scholars have identified that much of the viruses that circulated and 

ravaged human population throughout the 20th century had the same strain with the 

Spanish flu. Its contribution to seasonal epidemics and influenza afterwards perhaps, 

explains why Taubenberger and Morens (2006) named it the 'Mother of All Pandemics.' 

This was followed by epidemics of Asian flu (caused by the H2N2 virus) in 1957, Hong 

Kong flu (H3N2) in 1968, Russian flu in 1977, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic that was 

first reported in 1981, each with random and severe attacks on human populations 

(Ghosh, et al., 2010). 

Although the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus ― part of 

a family of viruses that commonly cause respiratory symptoms, was first identified in 

late 2002, the Influenza H1N1 2009 virus (A/2009/H1N1) is regarded as the first 

pandemic influenza of the 21st century (Luan-Yin et al., 2009). Its rapid spread and 

severity led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) call it the “first 

global flu pandemic in forty years.” At its behest, an estimated 151,700 - 575,400 people 

died worldwide. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was discovered in 

2012; the Ebola of 2014 killed more than 11,000 people (Maurice, 2016); the Zika virus 

of 2015-2016, and most recent of all―the nouveau coronavirus (COVID-19) that is 

ravaging the world. Currently, COVID-19 has killed over four (4) million people out of 

the over one hundred and ninety (190) million already infected (Worldometer, July 16, 

2021). Within enlightened populace, there is palpable apprehension whether this will 

be a repeat of the devastation of the 1918-1920 Spanish flu. 

 Besides the sheer 'strangulation' of its victims leading to massive fatalities, 

pandemics have indirectly caused unimaginable deaths by their negative impacts on 

economic and social life. Much like wars, those who are not directly killed by the virus 

might be maimed by its scars; and those not directly maimed would not escape grave 

financial and social burdens. During pandemics, there is huge decline in productivity 

and tax revenues due to shortage of labour arising from illness or rise in mortality, or 

curfews and quarantines which disrupt transportation, close down borders and 

workplaces, and restrict trade and travel. Thus, beyond premature deaths, the long-term 

health impairments and mental health injuries, pandemics elicit colossal loss in Gross 

Domestic Products (GDP). Several scholars like Shang, Li, and Zhang (2021), Cutler 

and Summers (2020), Maurice (2016), Verikios and research associates (2015), and a 

host of others, have presented mind-blowing estimates of costs of pandemics. In recent 

past, Ebola cost the world more than USD$2 billion according to World Bank 

calculations (Maurice, 2016). Amongst the various Commission's reports following the 

wake of Ebola crisis, it was only the Global Health Risk Framework for the Future 

(GHRF) that puts a price tag on its recommendations. The world, it estimates, loses an 

average of $60 billion every year from pandemics and epidemics (Maurice, 2016).  

The task of bandying price tags to pandemics is enormous not only because one 

must account for resource allocations that directly relate to lifesaving patient care 



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(including manpower resource, isolation facilities, equipment and supplies) 

testing/screening procedures, and contact tracing, but because it must also include the 

costs in terms of man-hour loss due to containment measures. This is in addition to the 

long-term harm to earnings from those who died or are permanently impaired. The 

latter category, which relates to immeasurable costs, includes everything that causes a 

decrease in GDP or loss in economic output, and is always exorbitant. For instance, the 

negative impacts of SARS led the 2003 Chinese annual GDP to shrink by 1%, and that 

of the entire Southeast Asia by 0.5%. Perhaps, this accounts for the seemingly high 

estimations from McKibbin and Sidorenko (2006) that puts the range of economic costs 

of an influenza pandemic globally from $US330 billion (0.8% of GDP) for a mild 

pandemic, to $US4.4 trillion for a severe one.  

But all these pale when compared to the financial losses that have trailed the 

nouveau coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the US alone, the Congressional 

Budget Office has projected a total of $7.6 trillion in loss of production in the next 

decade (Congressional Budget Office, 2020). In their incisive analyses which took a cue 

from 'environmental and health policy' for assessing the value of a statistical life, Cutler 

and Summers (2020), using relevant metrics, arrived at a cumulative estimate of over 

$16 trillion as financial costs of the COVID-19 pandemic to the US alone. This amounts 

to approximately 90% of the US annual gross domestic product. The figures would be 

quite scary if statistics from other nations are bandied. 

Allied to this in enormity is the social dimension of pandemics impacts. Due to 

government shutdowns, movements and travels are restricted. Schools and markets are 

closed, while venues for sporting and all forms of recreational activities are shut. Tested 

and infected persons are either isolated in their homes or quarantined at centers for 

treatment. As social beings, the longer the isolation lasts, and people are restricted to 

the confines of their limited spaces, the more they are prone to loneliness. Cutler and 

Summers (2020) are apt in recognizing that the loss of life among friends and loved 

ones, the fear of contracting the virus, the concern about economic security, and the 

effects of isolation and loneliness have the potential to disrupt the mental health of the 

population. According to the CDC, since April 2020, the ratio of US adults who report 

symptoms of depression or anxiety has averaged approximately 40%, as against the 

comparable figure of 11.0% in early 2019. 

  Besides morbidity and mortality, pandemics have seriously threatened 

economic stability of the world, and as such is a security threat. Their effects traverse 

from health care systems to animal health; education to agriculture, transportation, 

criminality, tourism and to the financial sectors. At the moment, many colleges in 

Nigeria and other parts of Africa have either lost an academic session or have had their 

programmes seriously truncated. The closure of many companies and downsizing of 

surviving ones have skyrocketed the already humongous unemployment levels, thereby 

deepening poverty and making it impossible for many parents / guardians to meet up 

with the financial obligations of their wards. As a result, many children have joined the 

league of school drop-outs. But most disheartening is that some government officials 

and their cronies are feeding-off the misery of the common people. Investigations reveal 



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how the monies meant to shore up the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), as 

well as overall palliatives to the people were hijacked by politician. In his fact-checks 

of government claims against available data and realities, Taiwo Alimi (2021) exposes 

a coordinated scam by government agencies in the disbursement of relief packages. 

Using data provided by the World Bank and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he 

uncovers the near-zero impact of the purportedly spent N288 Billion COVID-19 

intervention fund, even as more and more people slipped below the poverty line.  

This, perhaps, is not peculiar to Nigeria. In the US, for instance, investigators 

are still uncovering how billions in pandemic aid was swindled by con artists and crime 

syndicates. While it is sad reality that government aid programmes have long been 

fertile ground for scammers, the scale of the fraud in the unemployment programme 

created by the CARES Act has reached a staggering level. Preliminary investigations 

estimate that at least $63 billion of the $630 billion in disbursements has been misspent, 

and that the full scope of the loss in taxpayer funds is likely to soar well beyond $100 

billion (Ramgopal, et al., 2021). No doubt the ripple effect of these is obvious―an 

upsurge in violent crimes in both countries. Pandemic's scourge bites harder than most 

other disasters because its impacts are all-embracive, leading to a decline in global 

standard of living. It has its full wrath on all aspects of the economic and social fabrics 

of human society (Drake, Cholabi, & Coker, 2012). 

Government's Responses and their Ethical Implications to Democracy 

One key feature that distinguishes human rationality from those of higher mammals like 

Chimps or Dolphins is introspection. By this, we are able to navigate the vast 

complexity of our past experiences in order to secure our future. Ordinarily, the variety 

of havoccausing infectious disease outbreaks with pandemic potential should have put 

various strata of world leadership on constant red alert. But the lack of preparedness 

displayed in the kneejerk responses of even high income nations at the wake of COVID-

19 pandemic, shows we have either refused to learn from history, or are too absorbed in 

smugness. Despite human and material resources committed to pandemic preparatory 

strategies by global bodies, most regions of the world are oft overwhelmed by any 

serious outbreak. This, perhaps, accounts for the uncoordinated, staccato-like mitigation 

and containment efforts of various governments. 

At the discovery of an outbreak of a pathogen with pandemic potential, the first 

instinct that kicks in is to shut down and isolate the source. Medical sciences' rule of 

thumb suggests immediate isolation, for if the virus vector is effectively sequestered, it 

will run its course and die off, without the capacity to harm the larger population. Guided 

by this, many world leaders, at the macro level, close their international borders at the 

onset of pandemics. For instance, at the inception of this COVID-19 pandemic, although 

initially criticized by political opponents, President Trump began the closure of the US 

borders first to China on the 31st of January 2020, and subsequently to foreigners coming 

to the US from other nations. Afterwards, virtually all countries of the world followed 

suit. Belatedly on March 18, 2020, the Nigerian government announced its restriction 

of entry to travelers from some places it classified as high risk countries. In the main, to 



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contain a pathogenic influenza with pandemic potential, countries of the world adopt 

increasingly drastic measures, beginning with imposing travel restrictions, to airports' 

shutdowns, and border closures. 

Closely subsequent to international travel restrictions and shutdown of airports 

is the full-scale lockdown of cities, regions, or entire nations. Consistent with 

recommendations by the WHO (2020) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

(2020) to socially distance in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, most states in 

the United States, Nigeria, and other countries of the world issue stay-at-home orders at 

the wake of pandemics (Chenneville and Schwartz-Mette, 2020). In Nigeria, for 

instance, the military and paramilitary were drafted to enforce the lockdown order in 

major cities at the break of COVID-19 pandemic. In some other countries like the United 

Kingdom, the social distancing protocol is constantly reviewed in line with infection 

rates, leading to, at some point, government's prohibition of meeting of two household 

members (Joint Committee on Human Rights, 2020). Those who travel for any 

exigencies, are forced to undergo testing and quarantine for a specified period, while in 

some countries like Israel, Iran, and South Korea, governments are tapping into their 

population's phone location data to detect persons in close contact with COVID-19 cases 

as well as to monitor their compliance to imposed quarantine measures (Xafis et al., 

2020). 

Contact tracing is identified as an effective protocol for curtailing the spread of 

a pandemic. This entails tracing and isolating all the primary and secondary contacts of 

an index case. To be able to do this, governments and companies have developed tracing 

applications that use Global Positioning System (GPS) or Bluetooth technology to trace 

people's movements. This application is automatically installed in people's phones, and 

has the capacity to identify anyone in close contact with an infected person 

(Isfeedvajani1 et al. 2020). The downside to this is that it has the capacity to expose 

an individual's private information to the public. Being invasive, unscrupulous 

personnel have no qualms utilizing it in spying the activities of politicians, clergy, 

or any 'person of interest', intruding into their inner privacy. Without proper 

legislation and enforcement, pandemic contact-tracing strategy can be weaponized 

in much similar way as did the Communist surveillance systems. The forceful 

retirement of Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill from leadership roles at the US 

Conference of Catholic Bishops in July 2021, highlights the potential danger of 

location tracking and data harvesting. 

The rapid spread of pandemics often overwhelms even otherwise efficient 

healthcare systems in many countries, and, in particular, their critical care units 

(Grasselli et al. 2020). This has led to the intervention of political leaders in discussions 

relating to prioritization of the allocation of scarce medical resources such as 

Ventilators, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and medical personnel. In this 

scenario, unanticipated questions such as which hospital should get what Ventilators, or 

to which location should more medical personal be deployed, are rife. Caregivers battle 

with deciding who, amongst the many critically ill, should be admitted to the Intensive 

Care Unit (ICU); which patient should be intubated and need to be mechanically 



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ventilated; and whose ventilation should be plugged off to save those with more 

prospects of survival (Singh and Moodley, 2020). Thus, besides scarce resources and 

crisis capacity (Kavanagh et al. 2020), the practice of healthcare rationing or triage, 

which could lead to avoidable fatalities, is emblematic of governments' poor planning 

and execution; it is symptomatic of leadership failures. 

There is no doubt the severity of pandemics panics even the usually unruffled, 

leading to sometimes irascible and uncalculated harmful decisions in forms of 

containment responses. But to stave off anarchy and protect our democracies from 

sliding into authoritarianism, there is need to strike a balance between emergency rules 

and the healthcare of the people; between governments' intrusive activities and 

individual liberties. This is the sense of Aristotle's insistence that virtu in medio 

stat―virtue lies in the middle. There is, perhaps, no better way to apprise the 

eccentricity or otherwise of governments' containment programmes than by juxtaposing 

them with established liberal ethical principles. Following Beauchamp and Childress' 

(2013) four basic principles of healthcare ethics―the principle of respect for autonomy, 

the principle of beneficence, the principle of non-maleficence, and the principle of 

justice, it appears easy to ethically appraise disease control efforts, especially in the light 

of the emergence of the nouveau coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

The principle of autonomy relates to the right for an individual to make his or 

her own choices. In developmental psychology as well as in moral, political and 

bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced 

decision, especially in matters of private concern. Autonomous organizations or 

institutions are independent or self-governing. This autonomy could not be more eroded 

when, for instance, governments order for mandatory immunity or vaccine passports. 

Ordinarily, the vaccine passport is a supposed sign of one's protection from whatever 

pandemic outbreak, as well as a signal that one doesn't constitute a danger to public 

health. But the ethical dilemma regarding the use of extracted fetal tissues from aborted 

babies in vaccine production, has kept many prolife activists out of vaccine use. To 

directly call for universal vaccine mandate, or surreptitiously implement this through a 

proxy in the pandemic vaccine passport, not only engenders discriminatory attitude in 

social relationships, but surely detracts from an individual's capacity to make informed 

decisions for oneself. The situation is worse, if one considers, as in this COVID-19 

pandemic vaccine, that the long-term adverse effects are unknown, or that the full shots 

of the jab doesn't even prevent one from catching or transmitting the disease. 

The second―principle of beneficence, promotes the maximization of possible 

benefits while minimizing any potential harm on others; that is, it supports acting with 

the best interest of the other in mind. But given that every health intervention has 

potential to harm the recipients, special efforts must be made to conduct cost-benefit 

analysis so as to properly judge the beneficence or acceptability of certain interventions. 

While it could be said that governments' containment efforts through lockdowns and 

novel forms of therapies are generally expedient in times of pandemics, their forms, 

durations and specific implementation mechanisms can be faulted on many ethical 

fronts. Following Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian principle, administrators of common 



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11 

wealth should be impelled to always act for the best interests and wellbeing of the 

greatest number in society.  

In Nigeria, for instance, the reverse is often the case: governments at various 

strata commonly act for the benefit of their cronies. It took the #ENDSARS 

demonstrations in October 2020 to uncover and break into hordes of warehouses stashed 

with government palliatives, while the masses were dying in hunger due to lockdowns. 

The ones that were actually released on time were mostly usurped by government 

officials and their associates. Alimi (2021) underscores how politicians, community 

leaders and their cohorts hijacked the system, leaving the most vulnerable empty 

handed. For him, it is not surprising that, despite government's claim of releasing N288 

Billion COVID-19 intervention fund, more and more people have slipped below the 

poverty line. The reason is simple: the palliatives never got to the most vulnerable target 

beneficiaries, while government sleepily looks away. 

The third―non-maleficence, is somewhat related to the second. As deriving 

from the ancient Latin cliché―primum non nocere (first, do no harm), this is a 

bioethical precept that reminds administrators and healthcare personnel to consider the 

possible harm that any intervention might do. Its underlying tenet could be rephrased as 

“given an1 existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, 

than to risk causing more harm than good.” As a social animal, man survives and thrives 

only in the midst of others. For this reason, all strategies of isolation in pandemic periods 

must be properly weighed because they have the potential to negatively affect the health 

and wellbeing of individuals. 

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown regulations have been 

anything but humane across the world. While the media reportage of people chained to 

woods for flouting the rules were recurrent in some places, others were made to pay 

heavy fines. At some point, the British Health Secretary referred to these rules as 

'Napoleonic', while Hikenbottom (2020) described them as “possibly the most 

restrictive regime on the public life of persons and businesses ever.” In Nigeria, the 

military and police were drafted into cities to enforce compliance. And within the first 

two months of enforcement, the security agents had shot and killed more people than 

the pandemic itself. In some other countries, the lockdown severely restricted social 

interactions even among family members. According to the British Joint Committee on 

Human Rights, “it is difficult to imagine, save for imprisonment, a more stringent limit 

on family and private life than preventing gatherings of 2 or more people in private 

dwellings and public places” (2020, p. 16).  

Although well intentioned, the lockdown strategy has led to permanent closure 

of some businesses, massive loss of jobs, increase in financial burdens, surge in social 

isolation and feeling of loneliness, decrease in access to support networks, upsurge in 

mental health disorders and suicide rates (Isfeedvajani1 et al. 2020). As we observed 

earlier, the CDC reports that the percentage of US adults who were diagnosed of 

depression or anxiety shot up to 40% in 2020, as against the 11.0% in the previous year. 

In some other instances, there have been increase in the risk of domestic violence, 

physical inactivity, internet and gaming addiction, and alcohol / drug use. Currently in 



Ogbujah & Umaka                          Pandemics And The Future Of Ethics  In Democracies  

12 

Nigeria, the cumulative effects of these are more damning than the fatalities from 

COVID-19 which, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control's (NCDC) July 

31, 2021 records, stands at 2,149.  Government's inability to weigh into the pros and 

cons of isolation strategies, and so properly deploy their use seriously impugns on non-

maleficence principle.  

Finally, there is the justice principle which proposes that people receive what 

they deserve. Although the question of what constitutes “deserving” has been subject of 

controversy from antiquity, justice, in its broadest sense, encapsulates the notion of 

moral rectitude grounded on law, equity and fairness (Ogbujah, 2014). It is clear that 

the lockdown regulations provide for restrictions on movements and gatherings, and 

requirements as to the closure of businesses and premises during the 'emergency period'. 

Its selective application, however, not only hinders collective efforts in staving off the 

tide of pandemics, but largely highlights an underlying justice problem. Why might 

hordes of individuals who eke out their living daily be locked down for months without 

palliatives? Why might a pub or superstore be allowed to operate at 50% capacity while 

worship centers are closed, or allowed 2% capacity? Does the civic / secular space, let 

alone parade or demonstration grounds, provide immunity from pathogens more than 

religious grounds?  

Even though some perceived discriminatory application of the rules with 

secularist bias have been challenged in some jurisdictions, their lawfulness and 

proportionality, to a large extent, depend on local interpretation of positive laws by 

jurists (Hill, 2020a).  Each nation does have its own means for the exercise of emergency 

powers, but there is a threshold beyond which governmental actions are considered an 

overreach. The prevalence of such overreach has prompted an avalanche of suits, 

activism, and guidelines for the protection of liberal values and world democracies. For 

instance, in October 2020, the Diocese of Brooklyn and a Jewish group (Agudath Israel 

of America) filed a lawsuit in federal court against Governor Cuomo's new 

“discriminatory” COVID restrictions. The case went through appellate procedures and 

was later discharged by the U.S. Supreme Court, temporarily barring New York State 

from enforcing such a rule, as it was considered an overreach (Diaz and Totenberg, 

2020). In a similar case brought for adjudication, the High Court of Malawi ruled that 

an impugned lockdown essentially restricts the right to life, to equality and recognition 

before the law, and to freedom of conscience, belief, and worship (Kathumba v 

President of Malawi, 2020). It surprised, perhaps, only a few, that a UK retired Supreme 

Court Justice―Lord Sumption, regularly criticises the authoritarian approach of the 

British government with regard to COVID-19 rules, and has publicly encouraged non-

compliance with such rules (Hill, 2020a). 

The Council of Europe, for fear of loss of democratic values pursuant to the 

avalanche of emergency rules and arbitrary guidelines of state actors purportedly to 

contain the spread of COVI-19 pandemic, issued a Toolkit for Member States in April 

2020 on the need to respect democracy, rule of law and human rights. Citing relevant 

articles in the Convention that embody rights and freedoms as benchmarks of modern 

democratic societies, the Council cautions that any restriction that touches on any of the 



                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 1(3), 2021  
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13 

rights must comply with extant laws and be proportionate to the aim it pursues (2020). 

Sequel to this, the United Nations (in its COVID-19 pandemic advisory) acknowledges 

the exacerbation of vulnerability of the least protected in society during pandemic crisis, 

and consequently harps on the need for world leaders to work to preserve our common 

humanity and dignity in protection strategies, thus:  

This is not a time to neglect human rights; it is a time when, more than 

ever, human rights are needed to navigate this crisis in a way that will 

allow us, as soon as possible, to focus again on achieving equitable 

sustainable development and sustaining peace (2020, p. 3). 

The UN understands that every protection measure not in consonant with the overall 

promotion of human rights would be detrimental to the democratic course of societies, 

in the long run. This comes on the heels of complaints of human rights abuses from 

across the world.  

In Nigeria, for instance, people have been literally assaulted and humiliated for 

daring to seek for basic needs like food, water and diesel (to power generators), during 

the lockdowns. One particular Governor was widely called an “Emperor” for his 

arbitrariness in instituting obnoxious rules, and revelry with enforcing stringent 

lockdown measures. There is no doubt the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, like other 

pandemics, has led to a resurgence of authoritarianism in many democracies. It is 

indeed, resulting to a human rights' crisis. With severe limitations on personal and 

associational autonomy, it will be interesting to see how the democratic landscape will 

have changed at the end of the current public health emergency (Hill, 2020b).   

Conclusion  

In the preceding paragraphs, we explained the qualities that make an influenza to be 

classified as a pandemic; we saw the historical manifestation of various sorts of 

pandemics and their impacts on individual and social lives; and we highlighted 

governments' mitigation programmes and their actual and potential adverse effects to 

liberal values. For causing devastations to human lives and means of livelihood much 

as do wars, the outbreak of pandemics, no doubt, poses security threat. Hence, its 

prevention and containment should be treated, as Kern (2016) has opined, not just as a 

matter of health emergency, but within the gambit of national and global security. This 

ideation seems to underscore much of the reactive strategies that have trailed the current 

COVID19 pandemic. 

War, by hindsight, has the potential to wreak havoc in a society, but its outcome 

could be more or less catastrophic depending on its management, its handling. A proper 

handling of war or pandemic will undoubtedly save a lot of human and material 

resources from avoidable loss. The lack or near absence of pandemic-preparedness plans 

is largely responsible for governments' kneejerk approach to pandemic outbreak. In 

order to cover their lapses, and perhaps, consolidate grip on power, many world leaders 

hide under 'national security' to unleash draconian control measures on the people. 

Although, for common good, individual choices and freedoms are curtailed during 



Ogbujah & Umaka                          Pandemics And The Future Of Ethics  In Democracies  

14 

pandemics, this has to be done within the ambit of the law, and in promotion of human 

dignity. Delivering judgment in the case between the Diocese of Brooklyn and Governor 

Andrew Cuomo of New York [case 592 U. S. ____ (2020)], the US Supreme Court 

Justices upturned the Governor's overtly restrictive rule on church attendance, noting 

that “even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten” (2020, p. 

5). This is what it means to allow ethics and law to interlace with everyday governance. 

Irrespective of the speed with which decisions are made, a government that shuns the 

cardinal healthcare ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and 

justice slides into authoritarianism. Pandemic responses must be done with justice, 

equity and fairness (Jegede et al. 2020); their application must be proportional and 

honest in order to enhance trust between the people and their government (United 

Nations, 2020). Anything short of these is intrusive and has the potential to imperil the 

democratic gains of societies. 

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https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200413-sitrep-84-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=44f511ab_2
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200413-sitrep-84-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=44f511ab_2
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200413-sitrep-84-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=44f511ab_2
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/


                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 1(3), 2021  
ISSN: 2786-9792  

19 

Xafis, V., Schaefer, G., Labude, M. et al. (2020). “The Perfect Moral Storm: Diverse 

Ethical   

       Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Asian Bioethics Review 12, 65–83  



 

 

 


