PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wardrope, Alistair
TI  - Scarce vaccine supplies in an influenza pandemic should not be distributed randomly: reply to McLachlan
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2012-100750
DP  - 2012 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 765--767
VI  - 38
IP  - 12
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/12/765.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/12/765.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2012 Dec 01; 38
AB  - In a recent paper, Hugh McLachlan argues from a deontological perspective that the most ethical means of distributing scarce supplies of an effective vaccine in the context of an influenza pandemic would be via an equal lottery. I argue that, even if one accepts McLachlan's ethical theory, it does not follow that one should accept the vaccine lottery. McLachlan's argument relies upon two suppressed premises which, I maintain, one need not accept; and it misconstrues vaccination programmes as clinical interventions targeted solely at protecting the health of vaccinated individuals, rather than as public health interventions targeted at protecting the health of the population as a whole.