Science and Ethical Conflicts in the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s health and on production processes, given its extent, is still provisional. It is clear, however, that the pandemic will leave a significant legacy in people’s lives, such as lower economic growth, employability crises, efforts to maintain income, changes in work designs and routines and persistent health problems (Cruz et al., 2020). Successive waves of increased infections over the past few months have limited production demands and prolonged the economic crisis in different countries. In addition, an increase in psychosocial, environmental and economic risks is observed, with important impacts on people’s health and integrity, such as negative or derogatory feelings (eg: guilt, anger, shame), stress symptoms, of anxiety and mood disorders (Čartolovni, Stolt, Scott, & Suhonen, 2021). In fact, there is already an expectation of changes in physical and psychological health in view of the biological threat and the crisis in the provision of emergency care (Hines, Chin, Glick, & Wickwire, 2021).