‘A principled and pragmatic approach to securing and allocating Covid-19 vaccines works best... ‘Every vaccination programme carries with it ethical concerns over, among other things, safety, efficacy and how to distribute and allocate the vaccine when there are limited supplies...
‘A vaccine programme in the middle of a global pandemic is even trickier. On the one hand, speedy access to the vaccine can make the difference between life and death. On the other hand, the vaccines for Covid-19 are new and relatively untested: The world is learning of side effects as millions more get jabbed; and while we know the short-term efficacy, no one knows how long the protection lasts.
‘As Prof Lim said at the webinar, rolling out vaccination in the middle of a public health emergency is like chasing after a moving target. This requires constant monitoring and updating of rules and plans.’
This account also discusses, in the Singapore context: (1) The race to get hold of supplies (2) Who gets jabbed first and why (3) Why giving a choice of vaccine is not a good idea.
Read here (Straits Times, Mar 12, 2021)
