Vaccine Confronts Humanity With Next Moral Test
Who gets coronavirus protection first (and last)? Who profits (and loses)? What is “informed consent” (if it exists)? Divided societies face agonizing choices.
A lot to think about.
Photographer: Siphiwe Sibeko/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The coronavirus pandemic has stress-tested the world. Beyond challenging human fortitude, national health services and international rivalries, it has forced a series of moral choices. Many have provoked impassioned disagreement — over whether governments can force businesses and schools to close, over sacrifices for the sake of the elderly and, most bitterly and surprisingly, over whether being asked to wear a simple face mask infringes individual liberty.
The toughest moral test lies ahead. The biomedical industry and research facilities around the world are progressing toward creating a vaccine that would offer the best chance to end the pandemic and return life to normal. But the moral dilemmas provoked by the development and distribution of a vaccine will drive ever deeper debates.