In the Sage Journal article, “Does the light at the end of the tunnel shine for everyone? The need for early paediatric participation in vaccine trials during infectious pandemics,” Student, Erin M. Kwolek, discusses the morality of excluding children from the initial pandemic vaccine trials, as well the ethics of including paediatric population in early vaccine trials.
Kwolek states, “delayed paediatric vaccine study data precipitates obstructions in universal vaccination strategies and the establishment of herd immunity.” Furthermore, without vaccination, children under 12 have already “suffered biological, psychological, and social consequences” due to school closures and disruption to “social networks, nutrition, childcare, and learning.”
However, “promoting the inclusion of children in pandemic vaccine trials may contribute to global injustice as vaccine availability will be remarkably high in some countries and there will be an extreme paucity of vaccines available to other countries based on distance from manufacturing resources, the logistics of vaccine storage and transportation, and economic factors.”