I caught a news item on Aljazeera this morning which posed thought provoking, ethical questions about a vaccine for Coronavirus/Covid-19.
Who should be the guinea pigs for a potential vaccine trial? We know someone has got to try it without knowing any side affects etc. Is it right to trial it on healthy people and then expose them to the disease? Is it right to trial it on those who are already sick? I know I wouldn’t like to make this judgement call.
The question was then posed, once there is an effective vaccine, who gets it first? The citizens of the country who discover it, the poorest countries with little access to healthcare, the healthiest population to prevent them getting ill keeping businesses going? medical staff, carers?
The world is a very small place. People have friends, family, connections globally not just in the country in which they live. We are used to travelling far and wide. We know Coronavirus is related to the flu viruses and will be around now. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. A quote I heard from one of the speakers on AlJazeera this morning is ‘no one is safe until we are all safe’.
One thing is for sure, how humanity answers and acts on these questions will determine if humanity has a bright future or if it’s going to be a ‘me me me’ scenario.
What do you think?
Interesting and thought-provoking questions and I certainly wouldn’t want to make those choices either.