Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32936815›Full record

ArticlePloS one2020

Diabolical dilemmas of COVID-19: An empirical study into Dutch society's trade-offs between health impacts and other effects of the lockdown.

Caspar Chorus, Erlend Dancke Sandorf, Niek Mouter

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Understanding moral trade-offs in pandemic response: A discrete choice experiment on avian influenza policies.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026
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  8. From polarity to plurality: Perceptions of COVID-19 and policy measures in England and Scotland.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024
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  18. Deciphering the COVID-19 Health Economic Dilemma (HED): A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Caspar ChorusDepartment of Engineering Systems and Services, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-6380-4853
Erlend Dancke SandorfEconomics Division, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland.ORCID 0000-0001-7521-4773
Niek MouterDepartment of Engineering Systems and Services, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.

Funding

European Research Council
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We report and interpret preferences of a sample of the Dutch adult population for different strategies to end the so-called 'intelligent lockdown' which their government had put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a discrete choice experiment, we invited participants to make a series of choices between policy scenarios aimed at relaxing the lockdown, which were specified not in terms of their nature (e.g. whether or not to allow schools to re-open) but in terms of their effects along seven dimensions. These included health-related effects, but also impacts on the economy, education, and personal income. From the observed choices, we were able to infer the implicit trade-offs made by the Dutch between these policy effects. For example, we find that the average citizen, in order to avoid one fatality directly or indirectly related to COVID-19, is willing to accept a lasting lag in the educational performance of 18 children, or a lasting (>3 years) and substantial (>15%) reduction in net income of 77 households. We explore heterogeneity across individuals in terms of these trade-offs by means of latent class analysis. Our results suggest that most citizens are willing to trade-off health-related and other effects of the lockdown, implying a consequentialist ethical perspective. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that the elderly, known to be at relatively high risk of being affected by the virus, are relatively reluctant to sacrifice economic pain and educational disadvantages for the younger generation, to avoid fatalities. We also identify a so-called taboo trade-off aversion amongst a substantial share of our sample, being an aversion to accept morally problematic policies that simultaneously imply higher fatality numbers and lower taxes. We explain various ways in which our results can be of value to policy makers in the context of the COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Indexed as

BetacoronavirusHealth PolicyModels, EconometricPandemicsValue of LifeAdolescentAdultAgedAged, 80 and overAltruismChoice BehaviorCommunicable Disease ControlConsumer BehaviorCoronavirus InfectionsCost of IllnessCOVID-19

Identifiers

PMID32936815
PMCPMC7494093

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.