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 decision-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 so-called alpha-maximin expecte...
| Published in: | Risk Analysis |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11573/93305 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00761.x http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=000238442900009&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=0c7ff228ccbaaa74236f48834a34396a http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33745387521&partnerID=65&md5=f502cf937d8e805ad570c9b921dcd8e1 |
| Summary: | The precautionary principle (PP) has been proposed as the proper guide for the decision-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 so-called alpha-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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