呼吸器医学ジャーナル

COVID-19 Vaccination and Ethics

Rateesh Sareen

SARS COV-19 pandemic has shaken the medical, political and social systems globally affecting nearly entire human race with lockdowns, social distancing and numerous restrictions. Till date effective treatment against SARS COV-2 is lacking and there is resurgence of COVID- 19 in various parts of the world. The current focus is on vaccination against COVID-19 infection, every government trying their level best to provide vaccines to front line health care workers, others like police entrusted with law and order and elderly population respectively. Some incidents of adverse reaction to vaccines have been reported from various countries with skepticism about their efficacy and safety as the vaccines has been developed in short time with limited availability of data on safety and efficacy. The regulatory bodies have given nod to emergency authorization use and enthusiastically inoculated doses to health care workers. The big question is of free informed consent of health care workers for vaccination, is it without coercion, without peer pressure or pressure from higher authorities as many of vaccines have not cleared the complete process of clinical trials for the sake of immediate availability of vaccine. Could the standard protocols for vaccine development be flexed as per need, if so then why we take years developing vaccine for other diseases or are they driven by demand and supply proportions. These are some questions which will be addressed in due course of time once we get over the pandemic.