Moralizing metrics: Discourses of data and equity in California's public health response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed the transformation of data from a public health resource into a measure of morality. Disadvantage indices such as the Healthy Places Index and other metrics became central to promoting equity in the pandemic response, guiding real-time policy decisions in testing, reopening, and vaccine distribution. Drawing on a discourse analysis of public records, policy documents, and advocacy materials from the state of California, this article traces how metrics came to embody moral responsibility towards redressing inequities during times of crisis. We show how early optimism around data-centered equity—oftentimes rooted in appeals to fairness and justice—gave way to successive debates over the design, scale, and limitations of proposed metrics. Despite recognition of these various critiques, the state continued to use these metrics as a “pragmatic” means of fulfilling ethical imperatives. Our case reveals how data infrastructures acquired moral significance in times of crisis: metrics were expected to legitimate response efforts while absorbing urgent ethical demands. Ultimately, we show how metrics may function as evidence of moral commitment and the boundaries of moral imagination.