You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Response
Persuasion, not coercion or incentivisation, is the best means of promoting COVID-19 vaccination
  1. Susan Pennings1,
  2. Xavier Symons2
  1. 1 Department of Philosophy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  2. 2 Plunkett Centre for Ethics, The Australian Catholic University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Xavier Symons, Plunkett Centre for Ethics, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia; xavier.symons{at}acu.edu.au

Abstract

Savulescu (forthcoming) argues that it may be ethically acceptable for governments to require citizens be vaccinated against COVID-19. He also recommends that governments consider providing monetary or in-kind incentives to citizens to increase vaccination rates. In this response, we argue against mandatory vaccination and vaccine incentivisation, and instead suggest that targeted public health messaging and a greater responsiveness to the concerns of vaccine-hesitant individuals would be the best strategy to address low vaccination rates.

  • COVID-19
  • public health ethics
  • coercion
  • informed consent
  • public policy

This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-107076

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Twitter @xaviersymons

    • Contributors SP produced the first draft of this response article. XS edited the draft and wrote the discussion of alternative strategies to address vaccine hesitancy.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles

    Other content recommended for you