Publication Date

4-8-2022

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Keywords

Reciprocity, Resource allocation, Vaccination status

Abstract

When hospitals face surges of patients with COVID-19, fair allocation of scarce medical resources remains a challenge. Scarcity has at times encompassed not only hospital and intensive care unit beds—often reflecting staffing shortages—but also therapies and intensive treatments. Safe, highly effective COVID-19 vaccines have been free and widely available since mid-2021, yet many Americans remain unvaccinated by choice. Should their decision to forgo vaccination be considered when allocating scarce resources? Some have suggested it should,while others disagree. We offer a framework for evaluating when it is ethical and briefly discuss its legality in American law.

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Govind Persad, Emily A. Largent

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

4

File Size

357 KB

Publication Title

JAMA Health Forum

First Page

1

Last Page

4

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