Vaccine Nation: COVID-19 and the Legacy of the Atlantic Bubble

Abstract

In a previously published paper, “A Little Shelter from the Storm; COVID-19 and the ‘Atlantic Bubble’” (Canadian Journal of Practical Philosophy, Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall, 2021), I argued that ‘the Atlantic Bubble’ (hereafter AB) was a political plan which demonstrated how community strength, and the underlying positive liberty of communal action, mitigate risk. Returning to this, I consider recent developments, exploring COVID-19’s transition to a perennial issue, along with how features of AB might be emulated more broadly. Here, we confront long-standing philosophical issues which are of particular concern for initial considerations of how a theoretical shift, applying traditional virtue ethics to our contemporary context, might accompany the practical one of developing a robust sense of community