12 March 2021
The Italian Committee for Bioethics (ICB) has already dealt with the issue in the Opinion "Vaccines and Covid-19: ethical aspects on research, cost and distribution" (27 November 2020), returning again to this subject in the context of the new vaccination campaign and the new epidemiological situation in Italy.
Addressing in particular the following points:
- The ethical importance of ensuring fair access in the context of the vaccination plan and avoiding inequalities in the distribution of vaccines, with particular attention to those who are in particularly vulnerable conditions for medical and social reasons (the elderly, the sick with severe frailty, people facing economic and social hardship).
- The need for uniform and unambiguous criteria throughout the country, compliance in the different regions to the criteria of justice and equity.
- The importance of increasing in our country the pharmaceutical industries available to produce anti-Covid vaccines, supporting and encouraging collaborations with manufacturing companies in other countries.
- The urgent need to improve organization in the distribution of vaccines.
- The importance of making public all the information which enables an understanding of what is happening, and the publication, respecting the privacy of those concerned, of all data on the incidence of Covid-19 that may be useful in the fight against the pandemic.