# Public Health as if People Mattered 

This essay offers a framework for analyzing whether government may justifiably intervene to contain the spread of disease.

Winter 2025 • Social Philosophy and Policy Vol. 41 No. 2 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

This essay offers a framework for analyzing whether government may justifiably intervene to contain the spread of disease. Nonconsensual transmission of dangerous pathogens is an inherently violent act. This framework therefore justifies government public health activities for the same reasons and only to the same extent as other government activities. Government public health interventions are legitimate only to the extent they minimize the amount of violence in society. Violence-minimization is a more egalitarian and welfare-enhancing rule than, for example, a rule prescribing that government public health activities should minimize loss of life.

## Citation

Cannon, Michael F. ‘[Public Health as If People Mattered](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-philosophy-and-policy/article/public-health-as-if-people-mattered/95DCE8862451704A972D057C5F4ED088).’ *Social Philosophy and Policy* 41, no. 2 (2024): 480–504.

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##### About the Author 

[![Michael F. Cannon](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Michael%20Cannon.jpg?itok=0UROn8Dc)](/people/michael-f-cannon) 

##### [Michael F. Cannon](/people/michael-f-cannon)

Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute

[ 

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](mailto:mcannon@cato.org) 

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