Webinar on Equitable Access to Covid-19 Vaccines

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In early 2021 we faced the impossibility of having enough Covid-19 vaccines for everyone in the near future. While some high-income countries were launching massive Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, in many low and middle-income countries vaccination had barely started, leaving their most vulnerable groups and health care workers unprotected. Some argued that governments had the duty to give priority to its own population before helping citizens abroad; others claimed that vaccines should be allocated equitably at the global level; and others held views in between.

In this webinar, we opened the floor to a discussion about the priority of values and ethical principles that should guide vaccine allocation. Experts who held different views on equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines presented their arguments, discussed with other speakers, and answered questions from the audience.

Speakers: 

• Arthur Caplan, Division of Medical Ethics, New York University
• Heidi Larson, Vaccine Confidence Project, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Florencia Luna, Program of Bioethics, FLACSO Argentina
• Keymanthri Moodley, Centre for Medical Ethics & Law, Stellenbosch University
• Rino Rappuoli, External Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines
• Jan Helge Solbakk, Centre for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo

Hosts: Nikola Biller-Andorno, Felicitas Holzer, and Tania Manríquez Roa, University of Zurich  

Organising institutions: University of Zurich (IBME), Swiss Medical Weekly, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences–Argentina

Supporting institutions: Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the World Health Summit and the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics

Organisers: Tania Manríquez Roa, Felicitas Holzer, Nikola Biller-Andorno, Florencia Luna, and Dominik Bolliger

Read the viewpoint «A matter of priority: equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines» by Felicitas Holzer, Florencia Luna, Tania Manríquez Roa, Nikola Biller-Andorno

Read the peer-reviewed article «Charity or empowerment? The role of COVAX for low and middle-income countries» by Felicitas Holzer, Tania Manríquez Roa, Federico Germani, Nikola Biller-Andorno and Florencia Luna.

Read the peer-reviewed article «Expert Views on COVAX and Equitable Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines» by Tania Manríquez Roa, Felicitas Holzer, Florencia Luna and Nikola Biller-Andorno.

Here you can watch clips of this webinar.

If you have any questions or suggestions send us an email.