International Human Rights Law and the Protection of Medical Scientists against State Inference during COVID-19
Abstract The global COVID-19 pandemic has hosted a rising trend of state interference in medical science research against the virus. Such illiberal actions are counterproductive to hopes of addressing the virus because they impede the operations of scientific inquiry and threaten the integrity of scientific findings. State efforts to interfere in pandemic science work involve constraints upon medical scientists researching the virus. Such constraints risk violating the human rights of the scientists involved in COVID-19 research. International human rights law provides means of protecting scientists against state interference, and the reach of international human rights instruments approaches a scale comparable to the global reach of the pandemic. As a result, the exercise of international human rights law on behalf of medical scientists against state interference furthers the global urgency to resolve the COVID-19 pandemic.
