VACCINE ETHICS
If you think stay-at-home orders and lockdowns are confusing/ controversial/ exhausting, just wait until governments ramp up their vaccination campaigns beyond the current trickle of doses. Already, certain groups and individuals are squawking for head-of-the-line status.
Broadly, we should be happy so many people want their vaccines faster. Back in September, only 39 per cent of Canadians said they'd get the jab as soon as it was available, according to an Angus Reid Institute survey. As of Jan. 10 — with limited quantities of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines here; no reports of widespread problems; and rapidly climbing COVID-19 cases — the number who want immunization has surged to 60 per cent. Good.
So provincial governments are explaining who will be vaccinated and when. In Ontario, the first, limited doses are going to long-term care residents and caregivers; Indigenous Peoples; and front-line hospital health workers. In other words, they're meant for the most vulnerable and those who directly look after them.
It's hard to argue with this, but apparently some do. Policymakers face an array of claimants, all with perfectly logical arguments, who want their own needle faster. Why aren't we giving vaccines to child care workers right now? Or teachers, who hope to see students back in class soon? Why aren't family doctors getting the shot immediately? Everyone in the ER? All firefighters?
We could also demand that those who directly deal with the public — our much-undervalued grocery store cashiers, for instance — scoot to the front of the line. The immune-compromised too. Surely no one wants key members of the federal or provincial cabinet laid low by serious illness. And what about Dr. Vera Etches and others working so hard on the COVID challenge? By the way, prisoners, even though they are packed into congregate settings, should shuffle to the back of the queue, thank you very much.
With vaccine supplies limited for the next few months — in fact, Pfizer just said it is temporarily reducing its shipments to this country — the clamour could easily grow. Please stop it.
Yes, there will be mistakes and misjudgments as this thing rolls out. And already, provinces are fiddling their deadlines on second doses in order to administer as much vaccine as possible. They can't do a lot more — unless we think prioritizing the most vulnerable isn't a good plan. Our entire long-term care system is testament to what happens when you shortchange this principle.
So wait your turn. We are “all in this together,” aren't we?