With vaccine demand still exceeding supply, LNP | LancasterOnline Opinion asked an expert on ethics to answer some questions regarding COVID-19 vaccination.
Michele L. Mekel is the assistant director of Penn State Universityâs Bioethics Program and a teaching professor of bioethics; she is jointly appointed to the Humanities Department of Penn State College of Medicine. Sheâs also an affiliate faculty member of Penn State Law and the Rock Ethics Institute, and she serves as the co-principal investigator of the Penn State Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project.
Our Q&A follows.
1. An article in The American Journal of Medicine asks: âHow should a limited supply of vaccines be fairly allocated? Which ethical values should guide these decisions? How can apparent clashes between different ethical values be mitigated?â What are your thoughts on those questions?
THE ISSUE
On April 13, 2020, about a month after what we generally consider to be the moment when COVID-19 began to dominate our lives, we wrote here that âgood news is one of the best remedies we have at our disposal.â Of course, we had no idea then of how many months and how much heartbreak was ahead in this health crisis. But the sentiment we expressed nearly a year ago remains true. Good news represents welcome points of light in a dark time, and it deserves a brighter spotlight.
To that end, here is some recent good news that brought us cheer during the often cold and gloomy winter days.