Bioethics and Vaccinations: May 6, 2021

What money can’t buy: an argument against paying people to get vaccinated #bioethics https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/01/medethics-2021-107235

And more on paying for giving vaccinations

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/upshot/vaccine-incentive-experiment.html

Is Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine safe? Brazil’s veto of Sputnik V sparks lawsuit threat and confusion #covid19 #vaccination #bioethics https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/russias-covid-19-vaccine-safe-brazils-veto-sputnik-v-sparks-lawsuit-threat-and

Not sure how a threat of a defamation lawsuit will help.

CVST With AZ COVID Vaccine: 1 in 40,000 'More Reliable' Estimate #covid19 #vaccination https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/950646?src=soc_tw_share

This is about the AstraZeneca vaccine, not the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. I am a bit surprised the Johnson and Johnson wasn’t released with a restriction on the high risk group (young women). We have vaccines for that group that do not have this risk.

“Biden commits to waiving vaccine patents, driving wedge with pharmaceutical companies” #bioethics #vaccination https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/05/05/biden-waives-vaccine-patents/?tid=ss_tw

If the goal is to increase the rate at which people can be vaccinated for Covid19, I am not convinced this will succeed. There are already problems in manufacturing, problems in distribution, problems in storage… The unexpected consequences could be large. Making mRNA vaccines is not easy. How long will it take to build facilities in areas that have never done this? Will generic manufacturing companies be able to maintain quality control on such quickly ramped up production when western factories are having problems maintaining quality and production rates they theoretically can do? Will suppliers of necessary ingredients be able to provide supplies? Will interfering with patents disincentivize companies to work on developing new vaccines, drugs, treatments in the future?

More on this topic from a different viewpoint: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-vaccine-patent-theft-11620255362?mod=MorningEditorialReport&mod=djemMER_h