Deciding which groups come next is fraught with ethical dilemmas and ripe for political power plays.
The promise of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year creates a difficult political and public health question: Who gets the vaccine first?
Health care workers would be among the first to receive any vaccine so they can continue to work the pandemic’s front lines. But deciding which groups come next — the elderly, medically vulnerable people, grocery store and meat plant workers, children — is fraught with ethical dilemmas and ripe for political power plays.
Markets soared Monday after Moderna Therapeutics released promising early data on its government-funded vaccine — which means public health agencies will need to rapidly develop a plan for mass production and dissemination of a vaccine. The politics of vaccine distribution could get ugly fast if there aren’t clear rules. Continue reading.