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Open Access 01-12-2020 | Public Health | Scientific Contribution

COVID-19 and the ethics of quarantine: a lesson from the Eyam plague

Author: Giovanni Spitale

Published in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy | Issue 4/2020

Abstract

The recent outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is posing many different challenges to local communities, directly affected by the pandemic, and to the global community, trying to find how to respond to this threat in a larger scale. The history of the Eyam Plague, read in light of Ross Upshur’s Four Principles for the Justification of Public Health Intervention, and of the Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, could provide useful guidance in navigating the complex ethical issues that arise when quarantine measures need to be put in place.

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Title: COVID-19 and the ethics of quarantine: a lesson from the Eyam plague
Author: Giovanni Spitale
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Keywords: Public Health
Plague
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Published in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy / Issue 4/2020
Print ISSN: 1386-7423
Electronic ISSN: 1572-8633
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09971-2

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