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An Assignment on Ethical challenges

arising in the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Course Title: Business Ethics
Course Code: BUS-308
Semester: Fall-2020

SUBMITTED TO:
Mr. Siddiqur Rahman
Assistant Professor
Dept. Of Business Administration
Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship

SUBMITTED BY:
Shaon Chandra Saha
ID:181-11-5802
Section: A
Dept. Of Business Administration
Date of Submission
02 December 2020
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An essay on Ethical challenges arising in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is responding to an

outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a new coronavirus that was first
identified in China and has now been detected worldwide in more than 70
countries, including in the United States. The virus was named "SARS-CoV-2" and
"Coronavirus Disease 2019" was named after the disease it causes. Coronaviruses
are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species
of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. On March 11, the WHO
declared COVID-19 a pandemic as the number of infected countries grows
(Internet-1). In this pandemic, we faced many ethical issues and challenges. In this
pandemic, we have seen irregularities and corruption in different sectors of the
country. We could not live a normal life; we have faced a lot of obstacles.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents serious ethical challenges. In this pandemic, we

faced many ethical issues and challenges. The global ethics community is working
together to address the ethical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this
covid-19 pandemic, some common ethical challenges are physical distancing,
health sector indiscipline, transportation issue, education system, personal safety,
fake test report, the safety of doctors, etc.

Healthcare crisis: Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant

effect. Developed nations, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy
and Spain, have been greatly stressed by their highly efficient medical facilities
and suffer from heavy death tolls. Similarly, the weak South Asian country of
Bangladesh is losing its fight against the pandemic, but mostly because of its
incompetent healthcare system. Three responsible issues for our country’s crisis of
health care system:1) poor governance and increased corruption, 2) inadequate
healthcare facilities, and 3) weak public health communication. It is an important
ethical issue in this pandemic. This pandemic reveals the incompetent health care
of many less developed countries engulfed by intense corruption, and Bangladesh
is one of them. A study showed that 77.3 percent of patients receive private
medication from healthcare facilities. A substantial percentage of the populace
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suffered as a result, and many of them died without sufficient medical support.
Improper synchronization between the accountable authorities, the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), the Health Services Directorate General,
and the executives and staff of test laboratories may be a cause for certain
mismanagement.

Some hospitals just don’t care about patients running for money and their financial
benefit. Some private hospital does not admit covid-19 infected patients, resulting
in many patients died in ambulance and in their home because of proper treatment.
A few notable examples of corruption in the health sector during the COVID-19
pandemic. For website development proposed expenditure was USD 1.18 million,
and the original expenditure was USD 9438. For Computer software proposed
expenditure was USD 6.49 million, and the original expenditure was USD 0.17
million. For Personal protective equipment proposed expenditure was USD
52/piece, and the original market price was less than USD 23/piece (Al-Zaman, M.
(2020), 1357-1359). In Bangladesh, 3.4 out of every 1000 people had tested their
Covid-19. Reported tests per 1,000 people in South Asian countries:

Rank Country Test per Percent

1,000
1 Maldives 69.4 6.9
2 Bhutan 30.3 3.0
3 India 4.9 0.5
4 Pakistan 4.8 0.5
5 Nepal 4.6 0.5
6 Sri Lanka 4.2 0.4
7 Bangladesh 3.4 0.3
8 Afghanistan 1.6 0.2

Physical distancing: We know “physical distancing” also called Social

distancing that means keeping a safe space between myself and other people who
are not from my household. To practice social or physical distancing, stay at least 6
feet from other people who are not from my household in both indoor and outdoor
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spaces. To minimize the spread of covid-19, social distancing can be exercised

with other daily protective acts, including wearing masks, not touching our face
with unwashed hands, and regularly washing our hands for at least 20 seconds with
soap and water. Physical distancing is especially important for people to reduce
spread from covid-19. Covid-19 spreads mainly among people who are in close
contact with other people don’t follow physical distancing. Covid-19 spreading
occurs as an infectious person coughs, sneezes, or speaks, and droplets are thrown
into the air from their mouth or nose and fall in nearby people's mouths or noses.
The droplets can also be inhaled into the lungs. WHO studies show that people
who are infected but do not have any symptoms likely also play a role in the spread
of covid-19 (internet-2). That’s why physical distancing is very important to
reduce spreads of coronavirus. It is a very hard challenge for people to maintain
social distancing. Especially our country in Bangladesh people do not want to
maintain this physical distancing that’s why spreads of covid-19 increased in day
by day. In our country people are not habituated with social distancing, so, it is a
big challenge. Some businessmen do not follow physical distancing when they sell
something to customers. Some big companies do not maintain physical distancing
when their lots of employees work together in a factory or garments in this covid-
19 pandemic. I think it is an ethical issue. I think every individual and organization
should maintain physical distancing in this covid-19 period to reduce spreads of
coronavirus. If someone does not maintain physical distancing then the possibility
to infected other people from him, so, it is an ethical challenge to maintain physical
distance from other so that another person cannot be infected by him.

Transportation issue: Public transport is an ethical challenge that arising in

the covid-19 pandemic. Every country’s government has announced a lockdown
across the world due to the corona virus. Due to the lockdown, all types of public
transport were stopped in our country. After being lockdown for a few months, the
government has decided to allow public transport. The government has made a
number of new rules on how public transport will operate in this covid-19
pandemic. Those rules are use of face masks, maintain hygiene, use hand
Sanitization and physical distancing, also government fixed the rent of every
transport. We saw many transportation companies do not follow those rules. They
do not maintain proper hygiene in bus, launch, train, etc. They did not use hand
sanitization properly when picking up passengers. They do not maintain gaps
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between two passengers when sitting in bus, launch, train etc. Say for example, At
the time of Corona epidemic when I go to Dhaka, I saw that hand sanitizers are not
used anywhere on the bus and launch and they charge extra rent from passengers
and do not maintain gaps between two passengers. I think those activities are
unethical activities and it is an ethical challenger in this covid-19 epidemic.
Worldwide, the public transportation industry is currently focused on adjusting
facilities to conform with physical distance and cleanliness standards for cars and
stations, to comply with government directives, and to minimize risks to public
health (Internet-3).

Education system: Bangladesh has more than 23 thousand high schools,

according to the Department of Secondary School Education. We talked with
several high school students from the ages of twelve to sixteen in our area during
the survey. In their home, 5 percent have no TV set. Fifty percent of students are
undergoing horrific family regression. 25% are concerned about obtaining
admission to higher secondary education. Even though the government has started
broadcasting lessons on TV, since there is no TV in many households, it is difficult
for many students to do online education. Moreover, the early marriage rate in
Bangladeshis on a high in this covid-19 pandemic. This is a very serious ethical
issue during covid-19. If we follow higher secondary level, In Bangladesh, there
are 9081 intermediate schools, and over 13 lakhs are the total students. While it
was expected to hold the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination, it is
delayed due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Students are accepted to various
universities after finishing the highest secondary level, and some travel overseas
for further education. Now students are worried about their future. This year HSC
students get an auto pass, for this decision some students are very disappointing.
On the other hand, some students are happy about this decision. There are 155
public and private universities in Bangladesh and 117 medical and dental colleges
among these universities, according to the University Grants Commission of
Bangladesh (UGC) & Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC). There are
more than ten students at these universities learning lakhs. Since April 2020, all
universities and medical and dental colleges have stayed suspended throughout the
pandemic. Much of the students went to their indigenous villages and settlements.
Few universities take online courses, but most of them have left their mobile
devices in university or college hostels, such as laptop desktops. Only 27% of total
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students can class in online (Internet-4). Others students cannot do properly their
online class due to many reasons. Some of the students give their exam in online.
Now this is a big ethical challenge whether students give their exam ethically or
unethically. In this covid-19 pandemic it is an ethical challenge for us.

Fake test report: Public health experts in Bangladesh have expressed concern
about the government's decision to charge people for COVID-19 tests amid a sharp
decline in the number of tests being done. In late June, the government decided to
charge 200 taka for testing done at government facilities and 500 taka for samples
collected from home to “avoid unnecessary tests”. The private sector charges 3500
taka per test. On average, Bangladesh administers between 12000 and 15000 tests
a day with a population of 168 million (Internet-5). A Bangladesh hospital owner
was arrested in mid-July on charges of releasing thousands of false negative
COVID-19 test results. If we look for Regent Hospital scam owned by Shahed
carried out 10,500 COVID-19 tests, of which 6,300 were fake reports. If we look
for JKG Health Care scam approved by Directorate General of Health Services,
JKG Health Care set up 44 booths for sample collection. Each day, the workers
collected 500 samples. Providing fake test reports to the public, they earned USD
0.94 million (Internet-6). Travelers desperate to cross borders are buying fake
coronavirus test results or falsifying their own in an attempt to bypass regulations.
Instead, they're instead finding themselves in trouble with the law (Internet-7). For
travelers, a recent negative Covid-19 test can be a golden admission ticket to many
U.S. and international destinations without having to quarantine for two weeks.
That’s why travelers use fake covid-19 test report for going another country. It is
an ethical challenge that arising in the covid-19 epidemic.

Fake personal safety equipment: In this covid-19 pandemic we saw a lot of

ethical misconduct. Some companies make fake masks, fake hand sanitization,
fake savlon, many companies make personal protective equipment (PPE) but it not
safe for doctors and nurses. We know that face masks make sure it covers both our
nose, mouth and chin. Masks minimize an exposed person's possible chance of
infection, whether they have symptoms or not. People wearing masks are protected
from getting infected. Masks also prevent onward transmission when worn by a
person who is infected. Some of the companies make fake face masks that helps to
increase spread of covid-19 and it is dangerous for people. Say for example, A
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mobile court led by RAB 3's executive magistrate handed down three months of
imprisonment to the proprietor of Reza Food Products Limited, and fined him Tk5
lakhs, in the capital's Khilgaon on June 2 for producing and selling fake hand
sanitization. Though his license is for producing food his company was producing
and selling hand sanitizer without approval from the authorities. The company
claimed its product offered one hundred percent protection against viruses;
however, the product was free of isopropyl alcohol, the major component of hand
sanitizer that kills the virus (Internet-8). In order to destroy viruses, including the
flu virus, the common cold virus and coronaviruses, hand sanitizer containing at
least 60 percent alcohol or a "persistent antiseptic" should be used, according to the
World Health Organization. Some of the companies producing and sell fake hand
sanitizer that not helpful for people and it does not kill virus properly.

Conclusion: At this time of the Corona epidemic we have seen many kinds of
unethical activities that will not bring us anything good. Above I have highlighted
many unethical activities that have happened to us in this covid-19 pandemic. I
have described about our healthcare crisis and their corruption, social distancing
disobedience, indiscipline of public transport, our education system during covid-
19, fake covid-19 test reports, fake personal safety equipment’s etc. Those are
ethical challenges that arising in the covid-19 pandemic. The good thing among all
these unethical activities is that the doctors of our country are working hard to treat
the patients who suffering from corona without thinking about their own life risks.
I hope that those who are involved in such unethical activities will refrain from all
these activities in the future.
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Internet Reference

1. Background Information  (2020). Available at: https://www.aapmr.org/members-

publications/covid-19/covid-19-background-information (Accessed: 26 November 2020).
2. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (2020). Available at:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html
(Accessed: 26 November 2020).
3. Impact of COVID-19 on air transport sector (2020). Available at:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200611133129.htm (Accessed: 27
November 2020).
4. (PDF) Impact of COVID-19 on the Institutional Education System and its Associated
Students in Bangladesh (2020). Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344454037_Impact_of_COVID-
19_on_the_Institutional_Education_System_and_its_Associated_Students_in_Bangladesh
(Accessed: 27 November 2020).
5. Cousins, S. (2020) "Bangladesh's COVID-19 testing criticised",  The Lancet, 396(10251), p.
591. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(20)31819-5.
6. Al-Zaman, M. (2020) "Healthcare Crisis in Bangladesh during the COVID-19
Pandemic", The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene , 103(4), pp. 1357-
1359. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0826.
7. Travelers Are Buying Fake COVID-19 Test Results on the Black Market  (2020). Available at:
https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/travelers-using-counterfeit-covid-test-
results (Accessed: 27 November 2020).
8. Fake hand sanitiser business flying high (2020). Available at:
https://tbsnews.net/coronavirus-chronicle/covid-19-bangladesh/fake-hand-sanitiser-
business-flying-high-93859 (Accessed: 27 November 2020).

Journal article reference

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1. Al-Zaman, M. (2020) "Healthcare Crisis in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 Pandemic",

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 103(4), pp. 1357-1359. doi:
10.4269/ajtmh.20-0826.