Coercing for Public Health: Reflections on the role of coercion in public health emergencies

[workshop proceedings] The workshop, Coercing for Health: Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Ethics of Coercive Public Health Policies was held at the University of Oxford on July 3rd and 4th, 2024. This paper provides both a summary of the workshop proceedings, and reflections and directions for future research in coercive public health measures. The workshop consisted of four key parts: defining coercion; history and legal analysis of coercion; public health ethics perspectives on coercion; experiences of public health coercion. According to our reflections, some key questions remaining for further research include: what is the difference between coercion and enforcement? Who gets to define and address coercion? How do structural factors affect health and experiences of coercion? We encourage others to continue to work on this important area, to ensure the ethically acceptable and well-understood implementation of any future coercive measures in the sphere of public health.