[ad_1]
People should be paid to take a hit from COVID-19 in order for the country to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible, suggested a leading ethicist.
Professor Julian Savulescu of the University of Oxford said the incentives would help overcome growing doubts about vaccines due to perceived safety concerns.
People could be given a financial incentive to receive the jab or paid in kind, perhaps forgoing the need to wear a mask in public, he writes in the Journal of Medical Ethics..
“The advantage of pay-per-risk is that people voluntarily choose to take it,” he says.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
“As long as we are accurate in conveying the limitations of our confidence about the risks and benefits of a vaccine, individuals must judge whether it is worth paying for.”
To achieve herd immunity, which would stop the spread of the coronavirus and end the epidemic, between 50 and 80% of the population would have to be protected.
Professor Savulescu says there is a case of compulsory vaccination due to the “serious” threat to public health.
Coercion for the public good is already accepted in the use of seat belts and compulsory military service during war.
But he says mandatory vaccination would be unethical without first knowing that a vaccine is completely safe.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
“Yet another way of looking at this is that low-risk people are asked to do work that carries some risk, even if it is very low,” he argues.
“Therefore, they must be paid for the risk they are taking in order to provide a public good.”
Any vaccine will have been tested in tens of thousands of people before its implementation. But rare side effects may persist.
“Those who are poorer may be more inclined to take the money and risk, but this applies to all risky or unpleasant jobs in a market economy,” he says.
“It is not necessarily exploitation if there are protections such as a minimum wage or a fair price is paid to take risks.”
:: Subscribe to Sophy Ridge Sunday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
The payment would be much less expensive than the economic closure and licensing plan, he argues.
But Professor Keith Neal, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Nottingham, said paying people to get vaccinated would set a “very dangerous precedent.”
“If we did this, people would wait for it for other vaccines and also social media falsehoods would have a field day suggesting that it can’t be sure if that’s what you have to pay to have it.”
He added: “The money would be much better spent elsewhere in the NHS or provide vaccines to low-income countries to avoid possible reintroduction into the UK. “
