Health

If covid-19 vaccine is people’s rights, why not the choice of the right one?

Different people keep complaining about not being able to get the vaccine of their choice even if they have been allowed to have one; some countries decided to suspend the vaccination using certain sort of jab while other countries mostly African, kept it despite many complaints from their citizens.

As Fatima Hassan, a South African human rights lawyer and intellectual property (IP) rights expert said, “How vaccines are distributed will expose the divides by race, class, and economic power.”

When the first vaccines were recognized by the World Health Organization and The Food and Drug Administration, some powerful countries tended to buy everything available on the market, but then many international communities complained that the right to vaccine should be equally shared otherwise, some countries would have all their population vaccinated while others not.

Universal and equitable access to a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine is critical to ending the pandemic.

Should the vaccine be obligatory in working and public places?

Countries like Australia declared the covid-19 vaccine mandate, earlier in 2020; Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he expected the COVID-19 vaccine to be mandatory. He later backtracked, noting the government “can’t hold someone down and make them take it”.

But should it be able to mandate vaccination in the interests of public health?

Some argue mandatory vaccination can be justified on ethical grounds and recommend penalties for non-compliance – or even payment for compliance. It is clear the Australian government will do whatever it can to encourage widespread vaccination. This is also sparking debate about liability should anything go wrong. 

Meanwhile, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce signaled vaccination is likely to be compulsory for international travel with the airline. Flight Centre and others have joined the call for “vaccine passports” as the means to re-establish international travel in a COVID-safe way.

In USA, for now, vaccination plans are focused on prioritizing who will receive the first doses, beginning with those who are considered most vulnerable as well as most exposed to the disease. But employers will soon have to consider how to communicate with their workforces about the vaccine and decide whether to require staffers to get vaccinated as part of their duty to keep their workers, clients and communities safe.

Public authorities have the ability to implement policies that make vaccination mandatory for discrete purposes; for example, the Commonwealth “No Jab No Pay” policy makes eligibility for certain social security payments dependent upon vaccination. State-based “No jab no pay” policies limit access to childcare services.

These policies allow for a limited number of approved exemptions at the national level, with some variation at state level.

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