Enabling Ethical Analysis and Public Justification in State-Level Pandemic Responses in the United States

During the COVID-19 pandemic, state governments adopted policies that profoundly affected personal and public life, in some cases imposing costs, curtailing freedom and exacerbating inequities. It’s often claimed that such high-stakes policy decisions should be ethically assessed, should account for the diverse perspectives and values held by the public, and should be clearly explained and justified to the public. This project aims to improve the frequency and quality of such activities by creating ethics guidance and tools that are fine-tuned to real-world pandemic policy-making contexts.