Proportionality in Public Health Ethics, Fear, and State of Exception

Abstract This chapter adopts a critical narrative approach to the public health measures implemented in 2020 in Italy to contain a new pathogen outbreak. In what ways were the public health ethics principle of proportionality and of least infringement applied? What kind of master narratives were implicitly or explicitly used to justify the implementation of containment measures severely restricting individual freedom of movement? What rationale and evidence were used to justify those measures? The chapter provides background on lockdown measures in Italy in 2020 and on the institutional framework for crisis management in Italy. It then outlines the public health principles of proportionality and least infringement before moving on to present the public’s perception and lived experiences of the ban on outdoor exercise in Italy in 2020. The conclusions discuss the implications of specific narratives, which were employed to frame the emergency, for the mobilization of specific types of expert knowledge to manage the crisis, for the construction of the cultural memory of the pandemic, and for its biopolitical legacy.