COVID-19 Vaccination In The UK And Ireland: Ethics In Practice

This working paper examines questions of values in relation to the COVID-19 vaccination programmes in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We first present a brief overview of developments in relation to COVID-19 vaccine development and rollout on a global basis. We then proceed with an examination of key ethical, policy and legal developments in these areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, followed by the identification of commonalities and differences as between the two countries. In the final section, we consider the broader issue of values raised by the COVID-19 vaccination programmes in the UK and Ireland.

Note: Funding: Research for the workshop paper was undertaken as part of the Public Heath Ethics and Law Research Network project, which is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/V009222/1) and the Irish Research Council (IRC/V009222/1). The support of the ESRC and the IRC is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of Interests: The authors have no relevant competing interests to declare in relation to this paper.

Keywords: COVID-19, COVID-19 Vaccination, COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, United Kingdom, Ireland, Ethics, Values, Law, Vaccine Regulation, Vaccine hesitancy, Vaccine inequalities

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Ó Néill, Clayton and Tumelty, Mary-Elizabeth and Donnelly, Mary and Farrell, Anne-Maree and Frowde, Rhiannon and Pentony, Linda, COVID-19 Vaccination In The UK And Ireland: Ethics In Practice (July 15, 2021). Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper No. 2021/16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3887603 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3887603