Archiving the Pandemic

Saber(com)vida

Lockdowns save, lockdowns kill: Valuing life after coronashock

Stefan Ecks

Somatosphere

Overview

The most generalized response to what the author of this article calls the “coronachoque” has been confinement - a population control strategy, considered as the most compatible response to defend the value of life, “gaining time” to the infection and avoiding the collapse of health systems until the (possible) discovery of a treatment or a vaccine.

At the same time, however, its immense economic and social impacts are visible, with dramatic consequences for a large part of the world's population. How to evaluate the different versions of the confinement, its value for the protection of life and its consequences in a context of uncertainty and lack of preparation for a phenomenon with the characteristics of the current pandemic? How to respond to the dilemmas posed by the definition of commensurability criteria that allow evaluation?

The answer, according to the author, will be working with, and listening to those affected by the confinement experiences.