This post is a part of our Bioethics in the News series

By Felix Chukwuneke, MD

Avoiding the Impending Calamity: Our Ethical Responsibility

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that COVID-19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around the world, putting millions of children in both rich and poor countries alike at risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio. UNICEF, the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance are also worried that thousands of children could die needlessly from the diseases that were hitherto controlled through vaccination but are now being redundant because of the lockdown and compulsory quarantine by the government of the day. UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore stated that there is going to be a real problem as many of these already conquered preventable diseases for children such as measles, diphtheria and cholera are in the increase across the world.

“Immunization is one of the most powerful and fundamental disease prevention tools in the history of public health,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Disruption to immunization programmes from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.”

[WHO News release, May 22, 2020]

There is no doubt Africa will be the worst hit by this quarantine and lockdown policy. In a place where lack of education and poverty are commonplace, the rebound of these preventable diseases as a result of improper policy and control implementation will be unprecedented in the near future after we are done with the pandemic. Most governments especially in Africa did not take into consideration the sustenance of immunization programs and were more focused on the COVID-19 pandemic – the devastating effect of the disease cannot be equated to some of these childhood preventable diseases.

The quarantine and social lockdown have resulted in a drop in vaccination rates leaving several numbers of children open to diseases that were hitherto prevented. There is a need to step up campaigning once again on the importance of sustaining immunization that has been in place before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philosophy of Objectivism in Public Health Emergencies Such as the Coronavirus Pandemic

The mandate from a responsible government to ensure and protect the health of the public is an inherently moral pursuit with obligation to care for the well-being of its communities. In doing so the government should refrain from immediately engaging extreme measures. Further, the widespread deployment of uniform measures should first understand the peculiarity of the environments in which they will operate. Africans across many nation states, for example, live in a diversity of settings where communicable diseases are all too common. Many individuals live in poor living conditions necessitating proper advance planning of COVID-19 pandemic management. With that management, such planning should carefully consider the sustainability of the on-going vaccinations of childhood preventable diseases. Vaccinations have had an enormous beneficial impact on population health, and the related prevention of disease has been one of the single greatest public health achievements of the last century.

The questions I pose center on an exploration of which disease should rightly be given priority based on established fact. I question why there has been so much panic and fear about COVID-19. With the introduction of this novel disease, with a mortality rate lower than that of those diseases preventable by vaccination, should we permit gains made in vaccinating children against common childhood diseases to stop? With respect to more preventable diseases, especially those that affect children, why is there such an emphasis on COVID-19? Should mothers and caregivers give precedence to the COVID-19 pandemic, deferring their children’s routine immunization? Again, in an isolation and quarantine situation with strict governmental constraints on movement, how might childhood immunizations continue, especially in rural areas (assuming that accessible immunization centers are even open and operating)?

Currently, keeping to a routine immunization regimen by parents and caregivers is a challenge, especially for those who come from remote areas. The government, through the health ministry, should ideally put procedures in place for the duration of the pandemic to encourage all women to ensure that their children get access to these vaccines. It would be tragic to view this situation as a tradeoff, thus incurring the risk of returning to the horrors of polio, diphtheria, cholera and smallpox, and in doing so, allowing many to die of already controllable diseases.

Government Needs Proper Strategizing, COVID-19 Should Not Stop Normal Existence

There is no doubt that ethical challenges abound in quarantining people compulsorily, potentially against their decisions and will because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But more challenges abound when the government fails to take the precautionary measures necessary to ensure the continuity of the vaccination program for known and preventable childhood diseases. Because some of the latter are transmitted person-to-person there is, therefore, a need to provide both individual and public protection against the disease in addition to focusing on COVID-19. Though the COVID-19 pandemic may pose a health threat to many people across the globe, I suggest that there is even greater threat to personal liberty by compulsory quarantine and economic lockdown.

There is suspicion among some that the COVID-19 pandemic has been exaggerated, and that the measures currently in place across the world are not supported by the data. This doubt is illustrated by the Tanzanian President who had samples collected from goat, pawpaw and sheep for COVID-19, assigning human names to those animal samples. Reportedly, the related test results were positive, thus feeding the concerns on the accuracy of information regarding the incidence and prevalence of the infection, influence of co-morbidities, etc.

Demystifying the COVID-19 Pandemic While Achieving Health for All

Conflicting data notwithstanding, there are those who hold the opinion that measures taken by governments around the world are based on fear and speculations, and ultimately, might prove ineffective. It is argued here, that denying people their right to personal movement has a preventable impact on established vaccination programs, programs with known effectiveness in the reduction of mortality among children. High numbers of people are still being infected by those preventable diseases. It might also be argued that at present the imposition of a uniform isolation strategy is premature, especially with conflicting reports on its mode of transmission and degree of virulence. Perhaps it would be prudent to lay emphasis on practicing safe habits, building and supporting one’s immune system, maintaining proper hygiene, social distancing, and taking care of those most vulnerable ones among us such as the children and the elderly.

Felix Nzube Chukwuneke, is a Fogarty Trained Bioethicist and Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Dean of Dentistry in the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) Enugu Campus. He is Chair of the UNESCO Bioethics Unit at the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria; Chair of the College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee (COMREC) and Chair of the Eastern Nigeria Research Ethics Forum (ENREF).

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