With vaccines approaching, the pressure is mounting to come up with a strategy for distribution.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/what-happens-if-someone-refuses-vaccination-ethicists-urge-clarity-on-covid-19-rollout-1.5208824
For now, four key groups have been given priority to receive the vaccine, those at risk of severe illness and death (such as the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions), essential workers most likely to transmit the disease (such as health-care workers), those at risk who live in communities that could suffer disproportionate consequences (such as isolated Indigenous communities), and other workers providing services that contribute to “the functioning of society.”
But after those groups, who comes next?
Research suggests racialized Canadians are at higher risk than white Canadians of having pre-existing conditions that could put them at risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. Employers whose businesses have been sidelined due to COVID-19 will also be among those most keen to get vaccinated.
Whatever happens, there will inevitably be a period of time in 2021 when the limited supply of vaccines will create a society of haves and have-nots. Those months will be challenging, says Alison Thompson, an ethicist with the University of Toronto. “This is very concerning because then we have a society that is really a two-tiered society that is based on some kind of biological grounds,” she said.
CAN YOU REFUSE THE VACCINE?
It’s impossible for anyone to be forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine once it’s available. But there could be real-life consequences to refusal.
“People that don't want the vaccine, we all know, have an absolute right not to have it. I mean, it is their bodies without question,” Bowman said. "But that is an ethical concern because what will likely happen to people within that group is more and more opportunities may slowly be shut off to them.”
To make matters trickier, the vaccine will not be immediately available for certain groups. Pregnant women and children, who are not involved in clinical trials of the experimental vaccines, will be excluded from vaccination until more clinical trial data is available.
This exemption may be inconvenient, but it’s standard in these sorts of trials for safety reasons, Thompson said.
“Pregnant women are often excluded from clinical trials on many pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, because of the risk to the fetus that she carries and her own health,” she said.
We need to think very carefully about how we use people's immune status to grant them access to employment and travel and things like that
It looks like multiple vaccines will be available, however you won't get to choose which one you get.
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