The Covid-19 pandemic has presented major challenges to society, exposing preexisting ethical weaknesses in the modern social fabric’s ability to respond. Distrust in government and a lessened authority of science to determine facts have both been exacerbated by the polarization and disinformation enhanced by social media. These have impaired society’s willingness to comply with and persevere with social distancing, which has been the most powerful initial response to mitigate the pandemic. These preexisting weaknesses also threaten the future acceptance of vaccination and contact tracing, two other tools needed to combat epidemics. Medical ethicists might best help in this situation by promoting truth-telling, encouraging the rational adjudication of facts, providing transparent decision-making and advocating the virtue of cooperation to maximize the common good. Those interventions should be aimed at the social level. The same elements of emphasizing cooperation and beneficence also apply to the design of triage protocols for when resources are overwhelmed. A life-stages approach increases beneficence and reduces harms. Triage should be kept as simple and straightforward as reasonably possible to avoid unwieldly application during a pandemic.

Covid-19大流行给社会带来了重大挑战，暴露了现代社会结构应对能力中先前存在的道德弱点。社交媒体加剧了两极分化和虚假信息，这加剧了人们对政府的不信任和对事实的科学权威的削弱。这些损害了社会遵守和坚持与社会保持距离的意愿，而社会距离是缓解这种大流行的最有力的最初反应。这些先前存在的弱点也威胁到未来接受疫苗接种和接触者追踪的能力，这是对抗流行病的另外两个工具。在这种情况下，医学伦理学家可能会通过促进讲真话，鼓励对事实的合理判断，提供透明的决策并提倡合作的美德，以实现共同利益的最大化。这些干预措施应针对社会一级。当资源不堪重负时，强调合作和仁慈的相同要素也适用于分流协议的设计。生命周期方法可以提高收益并减少伤害。分诊应保持尽可能简单和直接，以免在大流行期间不必要地应用。