Health

The corona vaccine: a question of ethics

A model for a vaccination strategy is to be presented in the coming week. This also contains the answer to an ethically sensitive question: who comes first, who last?

According to the World Health Organization, 42 possible vaccine candidates are currently being tested. Although it is not yet clear when and how many of them will hit the world market in the coming months, experts are already planning the distribution of the vaccines. A delicate subject.

The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has already made one main objective clear in an initial statement: to prevent as many serious illnesses and deaths as possible. The focus is therefore on the population groups with the highest risks.

But who exactly is one of the population groups with the highest risks? Elderly, seriously ill people? Or the medical staff, which is particularly at risk from direct contact with infected Covid 19 patients?

Division of society into groups – then into a hierarchy

The ethics professor and president of the Academy for Ethics in Medicine Georg Marckmann has a clear opinion:

I think you should start with the health workers. Secondly, I would vaccinate those who are at risk of severe disease and thirdly, those who work in socially important occupations.

Georg Marckmann, ethics professor

According to the ethics professor, the societal context as a whole should not be disregarded:

I find it relatively obvious that the vaccination should be allocated in such a way that as much damage as possible from Covid-19 is prevented. Not only health, but also social damage.

“That could be the overriding objective of a vaccination plan.” This is what an international model proposal called “Fair Priority” is about, although in many points it deviates from the ideas already communicated.

The “Fair Priority Model”

“Fair Priority” is the name of a model that is essentially based on completely different basic values. The physician Ezekiel Emanuel from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA worked on it together with a group of 19 international ethicists, philosophers and “public health”. The researchers come from eight different countries, but without German participation. The model is addressed, among others, to the WHO, the vaccine manufacturers and individual countries – when it comes to the question of a fair vaccine distribution.

Corona vaccine: is a two-class society threatened?

There is still no clearly defined catalog according to which vaccinations should be given in the future. However, the fact is that not enough doses will be available, especially at the beginning of the vaccination offensive. Does this threaten a two-class society if the population is divided into vaccinated and unvaccinated based on certain parameters?

“That cannot be avoided at first. We have a shortage that inevitably leads to a disadvantage for certain population groups. However, it must be taken into account that only the sequence of vaccination is prioritized here, i.e. nobody is completely excluded,” says Marckmann.

According to the ethics professor, by prioritizing, at least fewer people can die.

Corona vaccine – a logistical challenge

The logistical distribution of the vaccine will also be a major challenge. Because another aspect of a corona vaccination strategy, according to Stiko, is the functionality of the health centers. Where should all the people be vaccinated in the future? There is already talk of vaccination centers.

“I think that if it were done decentrally by the resident doctors, it would be almost impossible to handle,” says Marckmann.

In the past, there was always talk of an immunity card. The Ethics Council rejects this at this point in time. Marckmann also has his doubts:

We cannot make any definite statements about immunity to the coronavirus. If someone has antibodies, we don’t know for sure whether and for how long that person is actually immune.

Georg Marckmann, ethics professor

Marckmann does not think much of a statutory vaccination requirement either. “There is always the risk that it will backfire, that it will mobilize even more opponents of the vaccination.”

Like so many other experts, he relies on the voluntariness of the people, who notice every day the damage Covid-19 can cause to health and society.

More

Related Articles

Bir yanıt yazın

Başa dön tuşu
Breaking News