Dr Jane Williams1, Dr Shevaun Drislane, Dr Jess Kaufman, Prof Julie Leask, A/Prof Katie Attwell
1ACHEEV, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia, 2Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Bio to come
Abstract:
The ethical justifiability of mandatory vaccination is an ongoing debate in the public health ethics literature given the tensions it presents between individual choice and collective goods. Arguments range depending on theoretical commitments and draw on principles of least restriction proportionality, generating population benefits, preventing harm, and fairness. Population vaccine mandates were widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider the principles above in the context of emergency or pandemic mandates. We draw on the Australian experience of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021-22 and our work on a large international project evaluating new mandates (MandEval). In addition to principles, context matters. We focus on the background conditions that ought to be in place for mandates to be justifiable. These include vaccine-specific evidence requirements, equitable access arrangements, and procedural justice considerations. One example is the need for a no-fault compensation scheme that offers some measure of recompense for individuals who have been injured in the course of carrying out their duties to public health. Another is careful formulation of penalties for non-compliance so that they are not disproportionately punitive in socially patterned ways.