Medical Ethics

Harsha Thirumurthy of the Perelman School of Medicine argued that we should waive COVID-19 vaccine patents for low-income countries. “We simply can’t bring an end to the pandemic—here in the U.S. or elsewhere—without rapidly closing the global vaccine gap,” he wrote. “And we can’t close that gap without waivers of patent protections that are keeping lower-income countries from manufacturing vaccines themselves.”

Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine wrote an opinion piece about the human cost of conducting child vaccine trials. While some may be concerned that the Pfizer trial was too small or too brief, Offit argued that a larger or longer trial would have resulted in more sick children in the placebo group, as occurred during the polio vaccine’s development.

PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno commented on some doctors’ decisions to not treat unvaccinated adults with COVID-19, saying, “We have to find ways to take care of people, even if we don’t agree with their actions.”

PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno spoke about President Biden’s decision not to extend the federal worker vaccine mandate to members of the military. “The military does have a complicated history around requiring, especially people in uniform, to take certain medications or to be vaccinated,” Moreno said.

Steven Joffe of the Perelman School of Medicine said former FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn will have to walk an ethical fine line in his new role as chief medical officer at a venture capital firm, as federal rules limit his engagement with the FDA going forward.