Epidemiological Policy for COVID-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a pandemic over a new coronavirus causing an illness known as COVID-19 which has spread to all the countries of the world. The novel coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. More than 2 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide, including more than 133,000 deaths. South Asia is home to one-fifth of the world population with meager health facilities. Nepal stands at a critical stage during this crisis as it is located between India and China and is highly susceptible to incidents originating from its immediate neighbors. Likewise, the first case of the virus was tested in Nepal on January 24, and the second case in the third week of March. Soon after the second case was testified, the Nepal government enacted with a nation-wide lockdown on 24 March 2020. The total number of coronavirus cases in Nepal has reached sixteen.
As no cures have been found to treat COVID-19, the epidemiological model of public health policy to fight the coronavirus needs to be adopted, which has two pillars: Self-preservation and sense of altruism. Self-preservation, in this case, is a behavior or set of behavior as a precautionary measure from coronavirus to protect oneself. WHO and Government of Nepal have been disseminating information about the precautions from coronavirus. The simple techniques such as avoiding the close contacts (social distancing), washing hands, using masks, covering the mouth and nose while sneezing and coughing, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces aids to self-preservation. But human as social animals, cooperative nature of human beings are inalienable, which leads to the perverse effect to the self-preservation during this pandemic.
Hence, the second pillar of the epidemiological model of public health policy during this coronavirus pandemic, sense of altruism, comes into effect. Altruism is an ethical doctrine which asserts that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others. It has been a primary virtue of medical practice over several years. During this pandemic, as WHO has rated COVID-19’s global risk of spread and impact as “very high”, every individual must act in benefit for others. Infected people must stay in isolation with the utmost care and help the concerned authorities for her/his contact tracing. The people who have come in contact with the infected person must stay in self-quarantine for more than two weeks to prevent the spread and impact. Social distancing, as a sense of altruism, is one of the core element to prevent the spread of the virus.
Moreover, this important pillar of the epidemiological model, in the present case of a global pandemic, was and currently has been principal to the health workers and security officials. Their selfless act of duty to save the people from the effect and spread of the pandemic has been heroic. Hence, it is the altruistic morale of one individual which is necessary for self-preservation and other from getting infected, and as a respect for the altruistic behavior of the health workers and security personnel to fight the pandemic together.
Furthermore, the epidemiological public health policy to fight COVID-19 comes with a question of “At What Cost?” Economists are certainly not of help to analyze the cost. At present, this pandemic has staged the dual responsibility between state and individual. While safeguarding the two pillars of this model, self-preservation and sense of altruism, to ensure the control of spread and impact of the virus, individuals have sacrificed the personal freedom and rights for the goodwill of the community as a whole, and thus, it is the responsibility of the state to protect the citizens from this whole crisis. In the situation of global crisis, as mentioned by Thomas Hobbes, “Social Contract” between the government and the citizens strengthens for both the parties. It is not about the violation of the human rights of an individual by a state due to nation-wide lockdown, rather it is the responsibility of an individual towards the state and fellow citizens, and state’s responsibility to protect the citizen.
Finally, for this epidemiological model to work, it must be able to capture the basic mechanism by which COVID-19 spreads in a set of interlinked equation. For this context, the population can be subdivided into various groups under age, sex, occupation and so on to detect the basic mechanism and vulnerability. Also, the model should be able to capture the underlying dynamics of the effect of the pandemic on other sectors such as employment, industry, and trade, than essentially predicting the impact for the next day or week due to the pandemic. However, this epidemiological model of public health policy is most important today than at any time in human history. It is the very responsibility of an individual citizen more than that of state to make this model successful and fight coronavirus pandemic.
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Manish Jung Pulami is pursuing his Master’s degree of International Relations and Diplomacy from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and was a Research Fellow in Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University, China (2019).