UNESCO Roundtable on COVID-19 Vaccines: Ethical Considerations from the Global Perspective

The responsiveness and the resolve of science in the fight against the pandemic has been remarkable. Within a year since the global outbreak of a novel virus, vaccines are being developed with record-breaking speed, with several types already being rolled out in some parts of the world. However, emerging obstacles including “vaccine nationalism,” intellectual property barriers, and “vaccine hesitancy” are working against our efforts to defeat the disease. In response to this ethical urgency, UNESCO is amplifying the global call for solidarity and equity in the distribution of the vaccines, and organized a Roundtable on this topic on 24 February 2021.

The Roundtable focuses on a Joint Statement released by UNESCO’s ethics deliberative bodies – the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) and the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) – on the multiple ethical dimensions of the vaccine development and distribution.