Page 32 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of
Population Studies Human behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

players and referees, the Paris and Tokyo Olympics, and In the US, is it none, 50,000, 100,000, or 1,000,000? What
patterns of piracy. if one of the deaths were a family member? One’s political
leanings likely influence one’s answer.
9. Conclusion
The right question, of course, is not what the balance
Once it was confirmed that the primary infection should be but rather how to avoid the need for it. There
transmission route is through aerosol spray, it was clear is an initiative called the 100-day vaccine development.
that eradicating COVID-19 would require drastic changes While achieving 1rapid vaccine development and
in behavior, or 8 million Americans and 115 million of the deployment within 100 days is complex, as reported in a
world’s population would have died from COVID-19 in separate paper (Martin, 2024), its success could defeat the
2020. All countries’ COVID-19 responses were led by their virus and reduce the need for oppressive NPIs. Without
leaders, not their health departments. Leaders have great the 100-day vaccine or new breakthroughs, these stringent,
powers of persuasion, particularly in a crisis. Thus, each mandated measures will once again be necessary in the
country’s leader largely determined his/her country’s fate. next inevitable pandemic.
The only 2020 measures against COVID were Acknowledgments
the mandated NPIs, which were face masks, social
distancing, school closures, and lockdowns/stay-in-place None.
orders. Others included border closures, hand washing,
disinfection, wearing glasses/goggles, clean air, testing, and Funding
contact tracing. All of them reduced COVID-19 cases and None.
deaths. In fact, just face masks, avoiding crowded places,
the use of the iodine-based nasal spray, washing one’s Conflict of interest
hands or using Purell, and rapid antigen tests can keep one The author declares no conflicts of interest.
safe. Hence, why were so many people in the US affected by
COVID-19? Part of the reason was that Republican states Author contributions
implemented fewer of the mandated NPIs and were less This is a single-authored article.
compliant with them. Furthermore, the tradeoff between
safety and quality of life often tilted in favor of quality of Ethics approval and consent to participate
life, such as eating at indoor restaurants.
Not applicable.
Unfortunately, all of these measures had negative
consequences. Isolation was perhaps the most pernicious Consent for publication
and contributed to increased mental illnesses, DoD, Not applicable.
increased deaths from postponed medical procedures,
and reduced children’s math and reading skills. All are Availability of data
frightening long-term effects for our future health.
Not applicable.
When considering how to prepare for the next pandemic,
we must recognize that there are no easy answers. As H. Further disclosure
L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is an The author was a former Chief Technology Officer in Bell
answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” Each of our choices, Labs, United States of America.
such as whether to close the schools or not, is an ethical
dilemma. Since 1980, Michael Sandel has taught Harvard’s References
most popular course, “Justice.” Competing student teams African Center for Strategy Studies. (2020). Lessons from the
address justice’s ethical dilemmas such as affirmative 1918-1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic in Africa. Available
action, income distribution, same-sex marriage, and the from: https://africacenter.org/spotlight/lessons-1918-1919-
role of markets in a classroom debate. In all cases, it is clear spanish-flu/africa
that there are no simple answers to complex problems, Ahmad, F.B., Anderson, R.N., Cisewski, J.A., & Miniño, A. (2021).
which is also the case for COVID NPIs.
Provisional mortality data - United States, 2020. CDC
Without NPIs, deaths in the US would have risen from Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report. 70(14):519-522.
1 million to 8 million. The ethical dilemma is how many Akhmetzhanov, A.R., Cheng, H.Y., Jian, S.W., Linton, N.M.,
lives would a nation be willing to sacrifice to avoid the Lin, H.H., & Ponce, L. (2022). Transmission dynamics and
negative consequences of lockdowns and school closures? effectiveness of control measures during COVID-19 Surge,

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 26 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJPS025110040