Public Health Officials Should Almost Always Tell the Truth
DOI
10.1111/japp.12659
Abstract
One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the lay public relies immensely
on the knowledge of public health officials. At every phase of the pandemic, the testimony of public health officials has been crucial for guiding public policy and individual behavior. The reason is simple: public health officials know a lot more than you and I do about public health. As lay people, we rely on experts. This seems straightforward. But the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that public health officials seem undecided as to what, precisely, their role is; are they providing the public information as it presents itself, or are they informing the public in a way that produces a desired or optimal outcome? In this article, I answer the following question: what are public health officials morally obligated to tell the public? As I see it, these are the main options: (1) public health officials should tell the full truth, regardless of outcome; or (2) they should tell partial truths or lies that are aimed to promote a socially optimal outcome. My answer to this question is that public health officials are only allowed to lie under very narrow and rare conditions.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2023
Publisher Statement
© 2023 Society for Applied Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Director, Samuel. 2023. “Public Health Officials Should Almost Always Tell the Truth.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 40 (5): 951–66. doi:10.1111/japp.12659.
