Thinking Citizen Blog — The Ethics of Booster Shots — a Global Perspective, Lying, the Case of Israel
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Thinking Citizen Blog — Thursday is Health, Health Care, Health Insurance and Global Health Policy Day
Today’s Topic: The Ethics of Booster Shots — a Global Perspective, Lying, the Case of Israel
“We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we are leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket.” (Doctor Mike Ryan, Irish epidemiologist, former trauma surgeon, and the head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program.) Is the analogy a fair one? Is this “vaccine apartheid”? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
WHO DIRECTOR GENERAL TEDROS CALLS FOR 2 MONTH MORATORIUM ON BOOSTERS FOR WEALTHY NATIONS
1. “So far, more than 4 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally. More than 80% have gone to high and upper-middle income countries, even though they account for less than half of the world’s population.” (Tedros)
2. “What is clear is that it’s critical to get first shots into arms and protect the most vulnerable before boosters are rolled out.”
3. “The divide between the haves and have nots will only grow larger if manufacturers and leaders prioritize booster shots over supply to low and middle income countries.”
NB: Only 1.3% of people of low and middle income countries have received at least one shot. “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”
LYING TO GET A BOOSTER SHOT FOR YOURSELF, PARENT, OR CHILD: NPR
1. “We asked our readers to weigh in: Is it unethical to get a vaccine when the government says it’s not your turn.”
2. “Some of you gave us a “Heck yes, it’s unethical!” “
3. “Others are willing to break, or at least bend, the vaccine rules if you 1. Think those rules won’t keep you or your loved ones healthy and/or 2. Believe unused vaccines will end up in a dumpster. “
NB: For samples of NPR viewer responses, see fourth link.
THE WANING EFFECTIVENESS OF FIRST TWO SHOTS AND THE NEED FOR BOOSTERS: The Case of Israel
1. “The (Israeli) data reportedly showed that for people vaccinated in January who are age 65 and older, the Pfizer vaccine was less than 55% effective against severe disease and hospitalization.” (fifth link)
2. Booster shot effectiveness: “among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.” (sixth link)
3. “A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalization.”
NB: “Israel started administering third jabs to over 60-year-olds on July 30. On Thursday it dropped the age of eligibility for a booster to 40, and included pregnant women, teachers and health care workers below that age. Third doses are given only to those who received their second shot at least five months ago.”
WHO blasts plans for vaccine booster shots as immoral
WHO head calls for two-month vaccine booster moratorium
Is It OK To Lie For A Booster? Here’s What Some Of You Had To Say
NIH director says new Israeli Covid data is building case for booster shots in the U.S.
Israel finds COVID-19 vaccine booster significantly lowers infection risk
For the last three years of posts organized by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the most interesting thing you learned in the last week related to health, health care or health care policy — the ethics, economics, politics, history…. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to health are or health care policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random health-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something really important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters.
