Shiawassee Times

Jeffrey Byrnes, a medical ethicist and assistant professor of philosophy at Grand Valley State University in Allendale Charter Township, answered a few questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine and the ethical decisions involved in its distribution, which was published in Bridge Michigan.

Byrnes said that governing the distribution of the vaccine fairly is the state's top priority. He affirms that public confidence is essential amid the COVID-19 pandemic; distrust will only create chaos.

"Maximize the benefits," Byrnes told Bridge Michigan. "Given that we cannot vaccinate everyone at once, how do we allocate the first doses to get maximal benefit to all the people? How do we administer this vaccine in a way that both treats people fairly and ensures an equitable result? How to make allocation decisions and carry out vaccinations in a way that earns public trust and establishes a sense of community ownership of the process? We must show the public what we are doing."

Byrnes says that the state has a commitment to shield Michiganders while affirming that the vaccine will considerably benefit its residents. He also pointed out that the most essential competency for the state is to acquire the trust of the minority population. 

"The state absolutely has an ethical obligation to protect its citizens," Byrnes said, according to Bridge Michigan. "Yet the state cannot be falsely naive about the history of our present situation. The state has in its possession a vaccine that it believes will benefit its minority populations. Yet the state must acknowledge that minority populations may not simply take the state’s word on that. When the state’s minority populations have had time to review the evidence and have seen the vaccine in their communities, then they can choose to be vaccinated, if they feel comfortable doing so."

Right now, the vaccine doses are scarce. So people that are in greater danger of contracting and suffering from the virus will initially receive the vaccine, and it will take quite some time to be able to treat every citizen.

"If we had the necessary quantity of vaccine and the capacity, then we would distribute it all simultaneously," Byrnes told Bridge Michigan. "Given that the supply is limited, we are forced to make difficult decisions about the order of distribution. Comparing the secondary benefits to the community of vaccinating a teacher and a power line worker cannot be undertaken in the realm of ethics alone. It requires input from experts in fields like statistics or data science, who can model likely benefit models."

Byrnes said that prison and homeless shelter staffers will be covered in Phase 1B. Phase 1A will include frontline workers and health care professionals. The general populations will get the vaccines at a later point. 

"I think what might prompt the question is the fact that staff of homeless shelters and prisons are identified specifically as prioritized in Phase 1B, while residents of those institutions will receive vaccination along with the broader population," Byrnes said, according to Bridge Michigan. "From my understanding of the epidemiology, there is reason to think that vaccinating the staff is an effective use of a small number of vaccines — largely because they have contact with people on the outside and would likely bring the virus in with them."