If we look at the lockdowns as treatment of the virus, or at least as medical prevention, then part of that prescriptive responsibility is to know the side effects and costs of that treatment. The four principles of medical ethics must be considered: individual autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence.
What autonomy is left to the individual via lockdown?
Are the lockdowns just?
Is there scientific evidence that the lockdowns are beneficial to patient (and society)?
Do the lockdowns cause harm to individual (or society)?
There are many doctors (most, I imagine) that unquestioningly conform to “lockdown as prevention” as prescribed by state and federal governments. I do not believe that the prescription meets ethical or scientific criteria. I’ve shared some of the scientific failings and costs through my previous posts and links to others’ articles and interviews, including those of other physicians and epidemiologists.
So, how then SHOULD we proceed in an effort to mitigate the viral threat? Certainly, steps can be taken which can have an effect without causing harm.
Ethically consistent: encourage social distancing while continuing much of life, work or study from home as able, allow anyone to isolate at home who so desires, protect the elderly and ill from outside contact as possible, encourage hygiene and general healthy living, offer broad testing to track spread and immunity trends, collect and share confirmed data (not guesses, and assumptions).
Unethical: mandates by coercion and threat of force that prohibit work, travel or association. Fines and arrests for violations. Shaming and intimidation tactics to discourage any challenge to mandates. Certainly, any private organization that desires to place a condition on its employees and patrons (wash hands, take temperatures, wear a mask, etc.) is free to do so, as those persons are free to associate or not with that entity.
And the big push is for mass vaccination. Of course, a vaccine doesn’t exist. Here’s a 2012 UTMB-Galveston immunology dept study with the developed coronavirus SARS vaccines. They led to infiltrative eosinophilic pulmonary disease. Additional studies are referenced at the site. I wouldn’t just rush out to get that COVID vaccine, folks. Let’s see some evidence that benefit outweighs risk.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22536382/?fbclid=IwAR3LSZThTx6X8-dOS_Q5YK2QOtlrYEbIs8RTNPhM7lQMHejbe0oCqyX2k8w
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PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e35421. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035421. Epub 2012 Apr 20.
Immunization With SARS Coronavirus Vaccines Leads to Pulmonary Immunopathology on Challenge With the SARS Virus
Chien-Te Tseng 1 , Elena Sbrana, Naoko Iwata-Yoshikawa, Patrick C Newman, Tania Garron, Robert L Atmar, Clarence J Peters, Robert B Couch
Affiliation
1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America.
PMID: 22536382 PMCID: PMC3335060 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035421
I’m finding some interesting vaccine related articles. In this study this month (from April 2020), evidence was reviewed in which Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) from previous immune system exposure (including, and potentially especially, from vaccines) may cause greater disease severity due to excessive immune reaction. ADE is “linked to the development of cytokine storm syndrome, which occurs in the most severe cases of MERS, SARS and COVID-19 infection.”
“… we may produce vaccines that enhance, rather than protect against, severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
The Potential for Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Translational Implications for Vaccine Development. Jiong Wang MD 1 , and Martin S. Zand MD PhD
Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, and 2 Clinical and Translational
Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY USA
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I copied the .pdf into this site’s media library, below.
http://theindividualmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID_19_JCTS.pdf
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Web source was: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340608449_The_Potential_for_Antibody-Dependent_Enhancement_of_SARS-CoV-2_Infection_Translational_Implications_for_Vaccine_Development?fbclid=IwAR0OYV89P7HMg2lYm8NopLTb2vt5aaGPjZI5VG84KRKJW57LCdeVZ9fU69A