ETHICAL CHALLENGES AND HESITANCY ASSOCIATED WITH (MANDATORY) VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19
ETHICAL CHALLENGES AND HESITANCY ASSOCIATED WITH (MANDATORY) VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19

Author(s): Miroslav Radenković
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: COVID-19; ethical challenges; mandatory vaccination; vaccination hesitancy
Summary/Abstract: The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted vaccination hesitancy as one of the top 10 hazards to world health in 2019, despite the fact that it has been widely known that the vaccine is an essential preventative measure to shield the vaccinated person from serious illness and death. Soon after, in March 2020, the WHO classified COVID-19 as a pandemic and strongly advised that the global populace be shielded from the further spread of SARS-CoV-2 through fundamental preventive measures as well as through widespread vaccination, even if it were mandatory for some populations. Mandatory vaccination could be viewed as a method of increasing compliance to vaccination agendas, and in the case of COVID-19, it was deemed ethically justified if the threat to public health was serious, population confidence in its efficacy and safety was high, the anticipated utility was superior to alternatives, but also if the penalties for noncompliance were balanced. Unfortunately, it was discovered that in certain cases, unsubstantiated data and medically misconstrued information on vaccine efficacy, duration of protection, and probable adverse effects, were the most important reasons for the COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. Taking into consideration previous experiences with COVID-19, further analysis of (mandatory) vaccination hesitancy is still more than required, with the comprehensive consideration of basic ethical principles that might give us some rational future directions in this highly sensitive issue.

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