Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Emigration and Immigration , Healthcare Disparities , Humanities , Immunization Programs , Minority Health , COVID-19/ethnology , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19 Vaccines/therapeutic use , Healthcare Disparities/ethics , Healthcare Disparities/ethnology , Humanities/ethics , Humanities/trends , Humans , Immunization Programs/ethics , Immunization Programs/legislation & jurisprudence , Minority Health/ethics , Minority Health/ethnology , SARS-CoV-2 , United States/epidemiology , Vaccination Coverage/ethics , Vaccination Coverage/organization & administrationSubject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19/prevention & control , Mass Vaccination/organization & administration , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. , Clinical Trials as Topic , Contact Tracing , Humans , Mass Vaccination/ethics , Mass Vaccination/ethnology , Pandemics/prevention & control , Politics , SARS-CoV-2 , United States/epidemiology , Vaccination Coverage/ethicsABSTRACT
The urgent drive for vaccine development in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic has prompted public and private organisations to invest heavily in research and development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Organisations globally have affirmed the commitment of fair global access, but the means by which a successful vaccine can be mass produced and equitably distributed remains notably unanswered. Barriers for low-income countries include the inability to afford vaccines as well as inadequate resources to vaccinate, barriers that are exacerbated during a pandemic. Fair distribution of a pandemic vaccine is unlikely without a solid ethical framework for allocation. This piece analyses four allocation paradigms: ability to develop or purchase; reciprocity; ability to implement; and distributive justice, and synthesises their ethical considerations to develop an allocation model to fit the COVID-19 pandemic.