Public Value and Ethical Challenges in the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major public governance issue in the United States since 2020. Public officials at all levels of government have provided important policies to control the spread of the pandemic and reduce its impact to society. This paper examines public value and ethical challenges that are related to the government’s pandemic responses. The paper first provides a review of value and ethical studies in public administration and public health crisis. It then examines value concerns and ethical challenges in COVID management and policy cases and the influence of political polarization to the value challenges. The paper concludes with discussions about the pandemic’s comprehensive challenges to the traditional professional management and suggestions of public value studies and trainings.

Keywords:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• public value
• public ethics
• public governance

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 One example about the application of ethical disaster theories is the development of ethical principles and codes in the International Association of Emergency Management (IAEM, n.d.). The IAEM emphasizes three principles of respect, commitment, and professionalism, as well as promotes fourteen codes in the areas of quality, professional independence, legal requirements, objectivity, competence, abuse of membership, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, professional responsibility, upholding the aims and objectives, professional reputation, member relations, financial propriety, and code of conduct (IAEM, n.d.).

2 There are additional studies about the issue of resource allocation during public health crises. For example, researchers (e.g., Aung et al., 2017; Daniels, 2000; Iserson et al., 2008) emphasized the need for a transparent and fair process to be in place for any resources allocation frameworks to be successful. The process emphasizes the importance of effective risk communication and requires open discussions and commitments among related stakeholders.

3 There are many challenges in the study of COVID related cases because of the continuing change of related issues and the emergency of new cases and concerns due to government policy changes. To minimize the influence of these challenges, the study focused on key issues and selected major cases that represent the goal of this study about public value and ethical concerns.

4 The concern about relief bill fraud problems is related to public values of transparency and accountability in public management. This study addressed the fraud problem in the policy section is based on the consideration of its relationship to the policy concern of relief bills and its large impact with long-term implications in the society (i.e., not short-term impact to an organization or a city or region).