News

CPLB in conversation with Israel’s corona response leadership and Israeli and WHO experts on ethical vaccination of the 12-15 age group

A CPLB seminar with senior members of the Advisory Committee for Epidemic Control at Israel’s Ministry of Health discussed the ethics and epidemiology of vaccinating young teenagers. Israel has the highest rate of vaccination in the world, and may be effectively over the COVID-19 outbreak. In this context, and given initial uncertainty about the risks of vaccination in that age group, the Health Ministry had been mulling whether to recommend vaccination of 12-15 year-olds, even though vaccines are available to them. In the seminar, leading members of the country’s corona response, senior doctors, statisticians, a WHO regional official, CPLB and IFH staff discussed what is known, and what remains unknown, about the risks and benefits of vaccination in that age group for the individual and for society, how to weigh these factors ethically, and what messaging and delivery method for vaccines would be most appropriate. Ministry of Health officials later suggested holding discussions on future population-level bioethics dilemmas.