Covid-19: democracy and hard choices in public health

As covid-19 mortality grows, the global effects of “lockdown”—from mass unemployment to threatened famine—become increasingly stark.1 The phrase “but it has to be done” is threatening decades of norms on human rights by focusing whole countries, the world, on one problem and one outcome.

Dispassionate discussion of covid-19 is difficult, but we owe the public the right to information provided calmly, honestly, and with context. Data indicate that covid-19 mortality is well below 0.5%,2 probably far lower,3 and …