Understanding the Risk of an Avian Flu Pandemic: Rational Waiting or Precautionary Failure?
The precautionary principle (PP) has been proposed as the proper guide for the decisionâ€making criteria to be adopted in the face of the new catastrophic risks that have arisen in the last decades. This article puts forward a workable definition of the PP based on the soâ€called αâ€maximin expecte...
Published in: | Risk Analysis |
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Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2006
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/193116 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00761.x |
Summary: | The precautionary principle (PP) has been proposed as the proper guide for the decisionâ€making criteria to be adopted in the face of the new catastrophic risks that have arisen in the last decades. This article puts forward a workable definition of the PP based on the soâ€called αâ€maximin expected utility approach, applying it to the possible outbreak of the avian flu disease among humans. Moreover, it shows how the shortage and/or lack of effective drugs against the infection of the virus A(H5N1) among humans can be considered a precautionary failure. |
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