Every aspect of the coronavirus pandemic exposes America's devastating inequalities. Far from an "equalizer," the virus is affecting already marginalized Americans the most.

Review the Vox article(https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21207520/coronavirus-deaths-economy-layoffs-inequality-covid-pandemic) included in this week's lecture content.

Apply the ethical principles behind equality and discrimination (Chapter 13) to the outcomes seen in pandemics.

The Principle of Equality

Racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination are unfair and unjust. As we have seen, the racist, sexist, or homophobic individual treats people of a particular race, gender, or sexual orientation poorly simply because of these characteristics.

Yet perhaps we still have not gotten to the root of what is wrong with racism or sexism. Suppose that our views about members of a group are not based on prejudice, but on an objective factual assessment of that group. For example, if men differ from women in significant waysand surely they dothen is this not a sufficient reason to treat them differently? A moral principle can be used to help us think about this issue. The principle of equality is the idea that we should treat equal things in equal ways and that we may treat different things in unequal ways. In analyzing this principle, we will be able to clarify whether or why discrimination is morally objectionable. The principle of equality can be formulated in various ways. Consider the following formulation:

It is unjust to treat people differently in ways that deny to some of them significant social benefits unless we can show that there is a difference between them that is relevant to the differential treatment.

To better understand the meaning of this principle, we can break it down into several different concerns.

Discrimination

A very basic definition of discrimination tells us that to discriminate is to distinguish between things, usually in ways that imply a judgment about what is better or worse. We say, for example, that someone has discriminating taste, which implies that she makes good judgments about what is good or bad (say with regard to food, wines, art, or music). As we shall see in the discussion of war (inChapter 19), discrimination is viewed as a good thing in the ethics of war; we want soldiers and armies to discriminate between those who can legitimately be killed (soldiers) and those who ought not be killed (civilians). But in this chapter, we are primarily concerned withunjustdiscrimination. In this negative sense,discriminationis unjustified differential treatment, especially on the basis of characteristicssuch as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. The goal of eliminating unjustified discrimination is an established policy of our legal system, with a variety of civil rights laws focused on preventing and finding remedies for it. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly states that its goal is to "provide relief from discrimination" and to "prevent discrimination" in public and federally funded programs and institutions.This idea has led to the development of explicit equal opportunity clauses that show up in policy statements and contracts for a variety of institutions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) explains its own antidiscrimination policy as follows:

EEOC employees are protected by federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, family medical history, or genetic information. Moreover, consistent with Presidential Executive Orders and other laws designed to protect federal employees, we must vigilantly prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, parental status, marital status, political affiliation, military service, or any other non-merit based factor.

This statement provides an extensive list of factors that should not be considered as relevant to employment. Indeed, as the statement's conclusion implies, the only relevant consideration should be "merit."

Include the following aspects in the discussion:

• Summarize statistics on the death rates for differing age, race, income, and ethnic groups during the 2020 pandemic
• What role, if any, do you feel inequality and/or discrimination play in these outcomes?
• Discuss how applying ethical principles might impact any inequities
• Cite any references used.