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Opinion | Is the zero-Covid approach of China and Japan about saving face?

  • Two strategies have emerged to deal with the coronavirus: mitigation, favoured by the US and Europe, and elimination, which dominates in Asia
  • Mitigation leaves people free to decide on the risks they take, but in collectivist-leaning societies, one owes it to others not to become sickened

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Workers put a mask on a 57 metre Buddhist goddess statue in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. Photo: Reuters
During the 1918 pandemic, influenza led to the loss of 50 million lives. Today, flu season returns each year, killing about 650,000 people world wide. If the novel coronavirus sticks around to become a background feature of our ordinary lives, as many scientists now predict, societies will be forced to accept some increase in the background level of death.

What level of risk should we accept? What freedoms should we give up to reduce the rate of death? Science alone cannot answer these questions because they are inherently value questions. The answers depend not just on the effects of different policies, but also on how we weigh values like saving lives and protecting health against competing values like avoiding economic hardship and supporting emotional and mental well-being.

As societies begin opening up, it will be helpful to clarify values about risk by speaking more directly about these values within families and communities. One way to go about this is by thinking about familiar risks to life and limb in our everyday lives.

We take risks every time we go for a swim, get in a car, or just cross the street. We also regularly assume risks by not doing certain things – exercising, sleeping enough, or eating right. These risks may seem worth it because of what they enable us to do, namely lead a fuller, more flourishing human life. What kinds of things is it important for people in our society to be able to do and be? What risk are we willing to accept to make this possible?

Medical workers inoculate students against Covid-19. Photo: Reuters
Medical workers inoculate students against Covid-19. Photo: Reuters
During the pandemic, two competing strategies have emerged. Mitigation, which dominates in the United States and most European nations, sets targets for community transmission and lifts restrictions once targets are met. This approach treats a certain amount of disease and death as acceptable. It strives to create the greatest good for the greatest number, weighing the loss of life and health to a few against the benefits of liberty, mental health, and happiness to the many.
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