Identifying the traditional principle of medical ethics of autonomy as a major factor that hinders epidemiological investigation and the understanding of a novel virus, this study adopts an ethical framework, consisting of the axes of ethical devotions (local, national, continental, and global) and ethical reasoning approaches (deontological and teleological), to analyze the approaches of communicating global public health crises like the COVID pandemic. The argument is made to endorse a global devotion with teleological reasoning in a large-scale public health crisis that needs global collaboration to cope with.

1. An Ethical Framework for Communicating Public Health Crises: A Case Analysis of the
COVID-19 Pandemic
Keywords
Ethical framework, ethical devotion, ethical reasoning approach, communicating public health
crises, COVID-19
Abstract
COVID-19 has taken the whole world by a big surprise by its global scale, the number of people
it has affected and killed, and its duration as a pandemic. While the current priority is still coping
with the pandemic and reduce its global influence, some reflections can be conducted to better
our responses next time in the same situation with a large-scale and infectious or contagious
public health crises, one of which is how to communicate public health crises of such nature to
the public ethically. While many factors can be attributed to the ineffectiveness of coping with
this pandemic in even highly developed societies, a factor stands out for this researcher now is
the most conspicuous principle of traditional medical ethics: autonomy, which hinders the
understanding of a noel virus and the conducting of epidemiological investigation and tracing, a
critical measure to contain the spreading of the pandemic, and escalates the pandemic spreading
in the current age of glocalization that has been facilitated by advances of informational
technology and the volume of human mobilization.

2. This study proposes an ethical framework, consisting of the axes of ethical devotions (individual,
regional, national, and global) and ethical reasoning approaches (deontological and teleological),
to analyze the approaches of communicating public health crises and particularly the COVID
pandemic. The argument is made to endorse a global devotion with teleological reasoning, in
comparison with the strict and to some degree intrusive security-check measures that have been
installed globally since the 9/11 tragedy in 2001. The argument for the stance of global teleology
in public health crises is in urgent need at a time when global collaboration is critical to cope
with many public health and environmental crises, mostly now at global scales, but such
collaboration has been dismantled to some degree.
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Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/46fd/2797c5416fcd1bd76d9692fcfcc6e70f6bf7.pdf