President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force member Ezekiel Emanuel recently co-authored a paper that advocates against “vaccine nationalism.”
The paper, published in September by Science Magazine, calls for pharmaceutical companies and governments involved in vaccine production to engage in the “Fair Priority Model,” as opposed to giving priority distribution to the local at-risk population.
The model calls on both groups to engage in a “broad and equitable” distribution of the eventual vaccine, and critiques the World Health Organization’s current two distribution methods. One model prioritizes population size for how the vaccine will be distributed, while the other prioritizes health care workers, anyone over 65 and adults with pre-existing conditions.
With regard to “vaccine nationalism,” the paper warns, “Public sentiment in some countries for retaining vaccine developed within their borders is strong, and many governments will also try to obtain vaccines produced elsewhere. But an ethical framework has broad relevance even in the face of nationalist attitudes.
“Rather than simply asserting that might makes right, governments typically appeal to national partiality: a country’s right and duty to prioritize its own citizens,” it reads.
“What you end up doing is giving a lot of vaccine to rich countries, which doesn’t seem like the goal of fair and equitable distribution,” Emanuel said of the model.
It is not clear if Emanuel’s framework is being considered by the Biden transition team while building its own coronavirus response effort and vaccine preparations.
The oncologist and bioethicist was tapped to join Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board on Monday, though he is no stranger to advising presidents.
Besides acting as a chief architect of the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama, he was tapped by President Trump in early 2017 to advise him as a differing opinion on health care policy when he was first taking office.