
During a pandemic, the emergence of scientific knowledge may be slow and subject to sudden change. However, swift and decisive policy making is often needed to minimize the damage caused by a pandemic. As a result, policy makers often need to make quick decisions with limited knowledge. This policy brief provides ethics-based guidance for decision making in pandemic-related policy. We situate this guidance in the COVID-19 pandemic, and focus on the following areas: Decision making under uncertainty Privacy of the infected and exposed The ethics of digital contact tracing technologies Restricting the movement of people in quarantine and during lockdowns