Human rights law can provide a transparent and fair framework for vaccine allocations, researchers suggest.
All countries face the ethical challenge of how to allocate limited supplies of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines
Researchers say that governments should look to human rights principles and commitments to help them decide who should get priority for the first available doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
A human rights approach would include social vulnerability alongside medical vulnerability in decision-making because health is affected by social factors.
National vaccine roll-outs should take account of these overlapping vulnerabilities
As Governments around the world wrestle with the question of designing a fair system to allocate their COVID-19 vaccine supplies for maximum protection against the pandemic, a team of researchers led by Dr Sharifah Sekalala of Warwick Law School propose that existing human rights legal principles should guide their thinking.
Human rights law can provide a transparent and fair framework for vaccine allocations, researchers suggest.
- All countries face the ethical challenge of how to allocate limited supplies of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines
- Researchers say that governments should look to human rights principles and commitments to help them decide who should get priority for the first available doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
- A human rights approach would include social vulnerability alongside medical vulnerability in decision-making because health is affected by social factors.
- National vaccine roll-outs should take account of these overlapping vulnerabilities
As Governments around the world wrestle with the question of designing a fair system to allocate their COVID-19 vaccine supplies for maximum protection against the pandemic, a team of researchers led by Dr Sharifah Sekalala of Warwick Law School propose that existing human rights legal principles should guide their thinking.