Who should get the Corona vaccine first? It is a question that worries both ethics and medicine. Some see that the priority in getting vaccinated is for workers in the medical sectors as they are the first line of defense in dealing with this deadly virus, while others see the priority for those who are infected with the virus as a threat to their lives.
Currently, there are less than 10 vaccines that are subject to testing in the last stages, some of which are expected to be production by the end of this year or early next year, which will be in limited quantities, and not enough to vaccinate the approximately 8 billion people who live on Earth.
Ethical scientists point out that doctors will face difficult decisions in determining who should get the vaccine first, and why ?, according to a report published by CNBC .
Arthur Kaplan, an ethics specialist at the Langon Center at New York University, says some countries will use their influence to obtain vaccinations and negotiate trade deals.
He points out that in the general principle every life has importance, but in practice, there will be a shortage of vaccines for everyone.
Kaplan did not rule out the emergence of a black market for this vaccine so that access to it will be available only to the wealthy who can afford it.
In the United States, ethicists hope that vaccines will be distributed between states in a coordinated manner, not as it did with the supply of protective equipment for medical devices, which has become a point of controversy after there is competition for it.
Some recalled the policies proposed during the Barack Obama administration in 2009 when the “H1N1” virus crisis occurred, which relied on the approach to reduce the spread of the virus first, and then vaccinated front-line workers in the medical sector, and other key workers, and then selected groups. The most vulnerable such as the elderly or those with chronic health problems, and then immunize communities.
White House chief epidemiologist and consultant doctor Anthony Fauchi had indicated in a scientific paper published in May that a single vaccine would not suffice to counter the Corona pandemic.
He noted that it is unlikely that any vaccine or vaccine manufacturer alone will meet global needs, and therefore a strategic approach based on multiple attempts is crucial.
Fauci stated in statements in early July that until now we do not know whether the vaccine will be like the measles doses that last a lifetime, or that you will need to be immunized again with a new dose of the vaccine, indicating that these inquiries can only be answered after we have a vaccine before End of the current year or early next year, and this is related to the success of any of the 140 vaccines under development and testing.
Three vaccines have reached the final stage in their clinical trials in humans, one for the American company “Moderna”, the other to be developed by the British University of Oxford in cooperation with the AstraZeneca laboratory, and a third for the German-American Bio-Tech-Pfizer Alliance.
Alliances and agreements began to intensify for a vaccine against Covid-19.
The French companies “Sanofi” and the British “GlaxoSmithKline” announced on Friday an agreement with the United States to finance more than two billion dollars to secure 100 million doses for the Americans.
The European Union has booked 300 million doses of unspecified money for next year.
For its part, Japan signed an agreement with the German-American Pioneer-Pfizer Alliance to obtain 120 million doses.
As of the end of July, more than 17 million cases of Coronavirus in the world had been officially counted, more than half of them in three countries, according to a census prepared by AFP, according to official sources.
Of the recorded infections, 666,586 deaths were reported, especially in the United States, the country most affected by the epidemic, with 4,426,982 injuries, including 150,713 deaths. Brazil (255,265 injuries, including 90134 deaths) and India (158,379 injuries, including 34,968 deaths).
