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This article contributes to the assessment of public policies to control the incidence of COVID-19 in several ways. (1) It contains a brief historical and comparative overview of selected pandemics, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) It provides a simple original model which could be used to prioritize the admission of COVID-19 sufferers to hospital (taking into account available hospital capacity) and (3) it specifies a second model to evaluate desired social choices involving the trade-off between the severity of social restrictions (taking into account their impact on the incidence of COVID-19) and the level of economic activity. Bergson-type welfare functions are utilized in the second model. It also critically examines the proposition that the isolation (lockdown) of social groups is a desirable method of limiting the incidence of COVID-19. This leads onto the consideration of the extent to which personal freedom of choice (liberty) ought to be restricted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief outline follows illustrating the factors that are likely to hinder economic recovery from COVID-19. Particular attention is paid to the moral and ethical questions raised by policies to control COVID-19. These appear to have received little attention in the relevant economic literature.

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This study examines life cycle travel patterns of outbound Australian travelers according to both gender and the purpose of travel. It finds that gender is a major influence on travel demand. Life cycle travel patterns for men and women vary considerably according to the purpose of travel. All age-related travel functions were unimodal (one mode or peak), except for travel for holiday purposes, which had two peaks. It was found that men tended to travel more often than women for business and work-related travel, but women traveled more often for leisure purposes, including travel to visit friends and relatives. Gender differences in the peak age for travel only existed in business and work-related travel, with travel for women tending to peak earlier than travel for men. Therefore, the purpose of travel and gender are important factors that need to be considered when predicting the long-term demand for travel.