A Brief History of Ethics in the Presence of a Pandemic

The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong effect on individual liberty versus a consequentialist ideal of the greater good for societal norms. Rather than arguing for the current situation, I have chosen to take a historical approach to address the ethics of dealing with these health situations in the past. Ultimately, I conclude that, while at risk of individual liberty, a rule utilitarian approach, as backed up by epidemiolocal data suggests that a mandate for the greater good is more ethical than a simple approach to individual liberty