Suchergebnisse

Various control measures, including vaccination, have been taken to flatten the COVID-19 epidemic curve across the globe. However, in Bangladesh, many young adults, considered the asymptomatic transmitter of the disease, are waiting to get their first shot. Therefore, the potential predictors of the young adults' vaccine uptake intention are significant to ensure their maximum vaccination when available to them. This study examined how vaccine hesitancy, eHealth literacy, and vaccine literacy are associated with young adults' COVID-19 vaccine uptake intention in a lower-middle-income country. A total of 343 young adults participated in the study. Using ordinary least square and probit estimation, we examined the effect of the explanatory variables of interest on vaccine uptake intention. Vaccine hesitancy emerged as the strongest predictor of vaccine uptake intention. eHealth literacy shared a positive association with vaccine uptake intention, while vaccine literacy had no significant association. To make young adults feel more confident about the vaccine, transmitting the latest vaccine safety updates through authentic channels is essential. The government can aim to enhance the eHealth literacy of young adults as an increased level of eHealth literacy will enable young adults to extract reliable health-related information more efficiently than ever.

The initial policy of the countries that developed vaccines has been to lock the vaccine by patent. This has been due to the fact that domestic demand for vaccine was mounting. Since only a few countries could invest in it, manufacturing and export remained at the behest of those few resulting in deep inequity in the global rollout. Pandemics are global health crises. Hence, calls for the patent waiver for the COVID-19 vaccine are growing to access the vaccine. The vaccine and its production, marketing and distribution have been politicized driven by the hegemonic aspiration. Both manufacturing and import-dependent countries are racing to win the diplomatic battle: the former has to win to gain hegemony and the latter to get the vaccine. Hence, the vaccine distribution has been marked with deep discrimination, and as a result, the migrant community is less likely to get their vaccine on time. This article engages in the decades-long debate over intellectual property rights and patenting life-saving vaccines. We argue that exemption of COVID-19 vaccines from intellectual property rights would improve global access and equity.

In bioethics vaccine refusal is often discussed as an instance of free riding on the herd immunity of an infectious disease. However, the social science of vaccine refusal suggests that the reasoning behind refusal to vaccinate more often stems from previous negative experiences in healthcare practice as well as deeply felt distrust of healthcare institutions. Moreover, vaccine refusal often acts like an exit mechanism. Whilst free riding is often met with sanctions, exit, according to Albert Hirschman's theory of exit and voice is most efficiently met by addressing concerns and increasing the quality and number of feedback channels. If the legitimate grievances responsible for vaccine refusal are not heard or addressed by healthcare policy, further polarization of attitudes to vaccines is likely to ensue. Thus, there is a need in the bioethics of vaccine refusal to understand the diverse ethical questions of this inflammable issue in addition to those of individual responsibility to vaccinate.

This paper explores the relationship between the research for and development of vaccines against global pandemics and insurance. It shows that development in advance of pandemics of a portfolio of effective and government-approved vaccines does have some insurance properties: it requires incurring costs that are certain (the costs of discovering, developing, and testing vaccines) in return for protection against large losses (if a pandemic treatable with one of the vaccines occurs) but also with the possibility of no benefit (from a vaccine against a disease that never reaches the pandemic stage). It then argues that insurance against the latter event might usefully be offered to organizations developing vaccines, and explores the benefits of insurance payments to or on behalf of countries who suffer from unpredictable pandemics. These ideas are then related to recent government, industry, and philanthropic efforts to develop better policies to make vaccines against pandemics available on a timely basis.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has a mandate to prepare and respond to public health events, including influenza pandemics. Pandemic preparedness requires a multifaceted approach with collaboration from all levels of government. The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance for the Health Sector (CPIP) is a guidance document that outlines key health sector preparedness activities designed to ensure Canada is ready to respond to the next influenza pandemic. This article, the first in a series, outlines Canada's pandemic influenza vaccine strategy as described in the CPIP annex on vaccines. The strategy encompasses all elements of a vaccine program including prioritization of the initial vaccine distribution, securing a pandemic vaccine supply, regulatory approval of a pandemic vaccine, vaccine safety, distribution and storage of the vaccine, allocation and vaccine uptake.

International audience ; Vaccines for COVID-19 have led to questions, debates, and polemics on both their safety and the political and geopolitical dimension of their use. We propose to take a step back on both the history of this practice and how current theories in immunology understand it. Both can contribute to providing a rational assessment of COVID-19 vaccines. This assessment cannot consider vaccine as an isolated procedure, and we discuss its intergradation with the broader question of knowledge and politics in the COVID-19 pandemic.

International audience ; Vaccines for COVID-19 have led to questions, debates, and polemics on both their safety and the political and geopolitical dimension of their use. We propose to take a step back on both the history of this practice and how current theories in immunology understand it. Both can contribute to providing a rational assessment of COVID-19 vaccines. This assessment cannot consider vaccine as an isolated procedure, and we discuss its intergradation with the broader question of knowledge and politics in the COVID-19 pandemic.