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. 2021 Sep;18(3):403-406.
doi: 10.1007/s11673-021-10120-4. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

Emotion and COVID-19: Toward an Equitable Pandemic Response

Bennett Allen  1
Affiliations

Emotion and COVID-19: Toward an Equitable Pandemic Response

Bennett Allen. J Bioeth Inq. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

This article discusses the ways in which healthcare professionals can use emotion as part of developing an ethical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Affect theory, a growing approach to inquiry in the social sciences and humanities that appraises the historical and cultural contexts of emotions as expressed through art and politics, offers a frame for clinicians and researchers to consider ethical questions that surround the reopening of the United States economy in the wake of COVID-19. This article uses affect theory to describe how healthcare workers' emotions are useful for formulating a reopening plan grounded in collective action and a duty to do no harm.

Keywords: Affect theory; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Public health ethics.

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