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Mandatory Vaccination for Care Workers: Pro and Con
By Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu An edited version of this was published in The Conversation The UK government is set to announce that COVID-19 vaccination will become mandatory for staff in older adult care homes. Staff will be given 16 weeks to undergo vaccination; if they do not, they will face redeployment from frontline services…
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No jab, no job? Vaccination requirements for care home staff
Written by Lisa Forsberg and Isra Black Last night the Guardian was first to report that staff working in older adult care homes will be required to get vaccinated against Covid-19. According to BBC News, ‘Care staff are expected to be given 16 weeks to have the jab—or face being redeployed away from frontline care…
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Care home staff vaccination – press release
Two (contrasting) perspectives on the news this morning about planned mandatory vaccination of care home workers. Professor Julian Savulescu “The proposal to make vaccination mandatory for care home workers is muddle-headed. Vaccination should be mandatory for the residents, not the workers. It is the residents who stand to gain most from being vaccinated. Young care…
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Post-Normal Challenges of Covid
Written by Stephen Rainey How to manage the inevitable disruptions to life brought about by the emergence of a viral pandemic – a question that for many seemed remote has now had us all preoccupied for well over a year. With our just-published article, entitled The Post-Normal Challenges of COVID-19: Constructing Effective and Legitimate Responses,…
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Guest Post: Frances Kamm- Harms, Wrongs, and Meaning in a Pandemic
Written by F M Kamm This post originally appeared in The Philosophers’ Magazine When the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. reached 500,000 special notice was taken of this great tragedy. As a way of helping people appreciate how enormous an event this was, some commentators thought it would help to…
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Pfizer Jab Approved for Children, but First Other People need to be Vaccinated
Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford; Jonathan Pugh, University of Oxford, and Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford Moderna and Pfizer have released data suggesting that their vaccines are well tolerated in adolescents and highly effective in preventing COVID-19. Canada, the US and the EU have already authorised the Pfizer vaccine in children as young as 12.…
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Phobias, Paternalism and the Prevention of Home Birth
By Dominic Wilkinson, Cross post from the Open Justice Court of Protection blog In a case in the Court of Protection last week, a judge authorised the use of force, if necessary, to ensure that a young woman gives birth in hospital rather than at home. The woman (call her ‘P’) has severe agoraphobia, and has barely…
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Press Release: ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation
Response to the: ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation “The new ISSCR guidelines provide a much welcomed framework for research that many find ethically contentious. Genome editing, the creation of human gametes in a lab, and the creation of human/non-human chimeras raise fundamental ethical issues that scientists can no longer overlook. The ISSCR…