Ethics Finder

Viruses / Vaccines

For several centuries it has been understood that disease could be spread by contact, and quarantining has been used as a way of limiting this. What was not understood until more recently were the means by which contact or near proximity transmitted disease. In the 19th century the germ theory of microscopic pathogens was developed and tested leading to the practice of vaccination of small amounts of the pathogens to induce subsequent protection. A virus is another means of transmission involving a pathogen that replicates inside the living cells of whatever it infects. Among the most common human viral infections are respiratory ones. These include influenza and coronavirus disease. There have been major viral pandemics of these sorts in 1918/9, 1957/8, 1968, 2009, and 2019- (Covid-19). The science of virology has been advanced by efforts to contain such diseases through vaccination. Ethical concerns about this include a) whether it should be mandatory, which violates the widely held principle of consent, b) whether state compulsory vaccination violates the right of freedom, c) which groups should be prioritised within a country, and d) whether vaccines should be donated at the same time to poorer countries, thereby touching on questions of justice.

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