Pearson Williams

Philosophy 1120

Professor Wilson Underkuffler

April 3rd, 2020

Section 1:

During this quarantine, I have been doing some deep philosophical thinking.

What better way to spend all this newfound free time than contemplating the morality of

government quarantine?

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the first case of COVID-19 in

the United States was on January 22, 2020. Since this time, the virus has spread across

the U.S. and brought everyday life to a screeching halt. Businesses have closed,

employees have been laid off, and even schools have transitioned to online. This begs

the question, “Ought you, the residents of Utah, drop everything in your lives to stay at

home for the foreseeable future?” The short answer to this question is, “yes.”

Throughout this paper I will discuss the possible moral implications of a quarantine, and

how certain moral theories apply to the scenario.

As of April 3, 2020, there are 1,246 cases of COVID-19 in Utah, according to the

Utah department of health. With only 7 deaths so far, are such measures as quarantine

really necessary? There are 3.161 million people in Utah according to the U.S. census,

is following quarantine really necessary? I will be examining several moral theories to

answer this question.

 First off, we’ll start with: Social Contract Theory. Simply put, according to social

contract theory, the moral thing to do is whatever is in the law. At first glance, one would

presume that it implies whatever the governor orders is the morally correct thing to do in

this scenario. Furthermore, this would mean that the quarantine is ethical because the

governing body ordered it. However, I think some might argue the opposite. According

to the Bill of Rights, we the people have the “right to assembly.” One could even

potentially argue that the quarantine is a violation of that right, therefore immoral.

However, this argument does not take into account the government’s emergency

powers. In times of emergency, the government may exercise extra powers to protect

the health and security of the people. This leads me to believe that according to Social

Contract theory, the quarantine is ethical.

Utilitarianism is where things start to get interesting. Utilitarianism states that the

moral thing to do is whatever produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

In order to fully comprehend the argument, I’m going to perform a thought experiment.

Let’s examine what the potential consequences of not quarantining could be. If there

was no policy keeping people home, they would likely go to work, school, and social

gatherings as normal. COVID-19 often doesn’t show symptoms for the first 2-14 days

(CDC), but it can still be spread during this time. If all things proceeded normally, this

would give the virus much opportunity to spread, because people might not even know

they were sick. This could lead to an increased death toll in the population. While

retaining social lives and contact would give people some happiness, it would ultimately

lead to more sickness. Quarantine however, drastically reduces the spread of the virus.
It would slow the spread of the virus, and hopefully stop it’s growth across the United

States. While it may cause an inconvenience to our lives, and damage to our economy,

the resulting happiness of stopping the pandemic would outweigh that of not having

quarantine.

Section 2:

In this section I will be discussing possible counter arguments to the quarantine.

One I have legitimately heard from a friend (who will remain unnamed), is that the

quarantine is all a ploy to further the goals of President Donald Trump. According to

what he told me, the quarantine’s purpose is to stop immigration. He believes that the

virus is being exaggerated and used as a scheme to further Trump’s political agenda.

Another argument against self-isolation could be the effect on the economy. The

quarantine resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak is having disastrous effects on the

United States economy, and the world as a whole. An article by Martin McKee and

David Stuckler describes the economic impact COVID-19 has had on China so far

stating, ​“industrial production fell by about 13.5%, and seasonally adjusted retail sales

are down 21%.”​ Furthermore, Goldman Sachs, an American bank and investing

company, has predicted that “it now expects [American] GDP to decline by 24% in the

second quarter of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic” (​Reinecke​). For

reference, during the Great Depression Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by

30% (​Britannica​). One could expect the argument to come from this data, “why are we
bothering with self-isolation when the economic damage is close to reaching Great

Depression proportions?”

Section 3:

My friend thinks that the quarantine is a bad thing because it is just being used to

further Trump’s political agenda. I have several counter arguments for this. First off, I

believe this argument commits the fallacy of a false cause. While a quarantine does

close borders, I doubt the reason is solely because Trump doesn’t want immigrants to

come in and steal American jobs. The purpose of a quarantine is to stop the spread of a

disease, and I don’t believe such a large quarantine would happen if COVID-19 wasn’t a

legitimate problem to be dealt with. My friend also commits another logical fallacy, that

of Ad Hominem. He decides to attack Trump’s decision to quarantine and close borders

by attacking the person and not the argument. Instead of arguing points against the

policy, he calls Trump a “racist orange” and accuses him of ulterior motives. My friend

commits two separate logical fallacies. His reasons for disliking quarantine didn’t include

any legitimate data or sound arguments, so it is safe to say that it is not a strong claim

made on his part.

I will now address the economic argument. While it is true that the possible

economic damage from the COVID-19 quarantine could be catastrophic, I think the

danger of the virus outweighs that. Earlier I discussed that as of April 3rd only 7 deaths

had occured because of the virus in Utah. However, as of April 23rd 2020, that number

has risen to 35. The case count has also risen to 3,612 in Utah ​(Utah Department of
Health​) even in spite of the quarantine. To summarize, both the number of cases and

deaths related to COVID-19 have more than doubled within the last few weeks, in spite

of increased health measures. If we were to ignore the virus, break quarantine, and live

our daily lives as normal, I feel it would have the exact opposite effect of helping the

economy recover. I believe the death toll and further economic damage would be far

greater than current predictions show because of how easily the virus can spread. I

agree with the words of McKee and Stuckler when they said “the first and most obvious

priority [is to save lives].” and the best way to achieve that is through self-isolation and

social distancing.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Utah residents ought to stay inside and follow quarantine

procedures. It produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of

people such as Utilitarianism suggests, and it follows Social Contract theory. While

some may argue the economic damage isn’t worth the quarantine, I believe the damage

would be much worse if the virus is left alone. The moral thing for Utahns to do at the

moment is, to echo the words of Governor Gary Herbert, “Stay home, stay safe.”