Prioritising access to pandemic influenza vaccine: a review of the ethics literature.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The world is threatened by future pandemics. Vaccines can play a key role in preventing harm, but there will inevitably be shortages because there is no possibility of advance stockpiling. We therefore need some method of prioritising access. MAIN TEXT:This paper reports a critical interpretative review of the published literature that discusses ethical arguments used to justify how we could prioritise vaccine during an influenza pandemic. We found that the focus of the literature was often on proposing different groups as priorities (e.g. those with pre-existing health conditions, the young, the old, health care workers etc.). Different reasons were often suggested as a means of justifying such priority groupings (e.g. appeal to best overall outcomes, fairness, belonging to a v

SUBMITTER: Williams JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7224123 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature