Ethical and Public Health Attitudes on Physical Distancing, Self-isolation, Quarantine, and Lockdown

Usually, the first responses against new communicable diseases are quarantines and travel bans. As of March, the 16th, 2020 until May, the 14th, 2020 The State of Emergency was declared on all the territory of Romania. People had to comply with "stay-at-home orders" while some regions were under total lockdown. In late April 2020, we created and distributed an online survey, via www.psysafe.org. We addressed ethical issues towards both the individual and populational levels measures designed to prevent and reduce COVID-19, as well as assessed the attitudes towards hypothetical public health sanctions infringed on people who do not follow the regulations. In total, 3.122 respondents took part in the survey. The majority consider that physical distancing, self-isolation, quarantine, and nation/region-wide lockdown imposed to prevent and reduce COVID-19 are both necessary and morally justified. The participants do not agree with a hypothetical sanction of not offering medical treatment but would agree with a hypothetical sanction of having to pay for the medical treatment. In the end, we examined the justice of quarantine and isolation from an ethical point of view.