Pandemic Outbreak and Luck: Notes about the Role of the State

Abstract

The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic disease can be underestood as misfortune or injustice. In this paper I will show that in Chile it can be understood as an injustice. To justify it I will describe the main characteristics of the luck egalitarian theory. Then, I will show some data about the coronavirus disease in Chile to justify why in Chile the pandemic disease is an injustice. Namely, I will show that if human beings are free and equal in rights, then it is necessary that equality has been expressed in the equal capacity to face the brute luck. So, human beings are free, this is to say, responsibles, and equal, this is to say, brute luck free. Therefore, the main aim of the State, as far as the set of institutions of justice, is to minimize the brute luck. The relationship between the effects of the pandemic and the socioeconomic condition should be understood as the abandonment of the citizens to their brute luck. To let citizens alone with their brute luck is not a disgrace, it is an injustice.