Quarantine, isolation and the duty of easy rescue in public health

Giubilini, Alberto; Douglas, Thomas; Maslen, Hannah; Savulescu, Julian

Granted, often states would not be able to provide the assistance that is owed to constrained individuals. Developing countries in particular would struggle to fulfil this obligation. In such cases, we claim that it is the international community that should provide the necessary support to the state in question. The responsibility to make it the case that the cost to people in quarantine or isolation is sufficiently small is a responsibility that falls on all of us, regardless of where an infectious disease outbreak occurs or is likely to occur, Thus, for example, Western societies have a responsibility to contribute to making public health measures in the developing world easy to bear for those affected, by funding the necessary psychological, material and social support that constrained individuals need.