Is it immoral to refuse the vaccine?
Moral Maze
BBC
4.5 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
According the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the “vast majority” of people in Bolton who have been admitted to hospital after contracting the fast-spreading Indian variant of Covid-19 had been offered a vaccine but hadn’t taken it. Attempts to persuade vaccine uptake have focussed on public health, social freedom and economic recovery. What about the language of morality? Is it immoral to refuse the vaccine? We are social beings, and the definition of morality is behaving in a way that is good for others, not just ourselves. How are we to make moral judgments when there are many reasons for vaccine refusal and hesitancy: conspiracy theories, false information, health concerns, religious objections as well as cultural and language barriers. Some people justify their refusal precisely because they believe it to be moral. It could be argued that to be moral isn’t always about doing the right thing, it’s about seeking to do the right thing, and even if you have reached the wrong conclusions, this doesn’t make you bad person. Vaccine refusal often involves a group dimension above and beyond individual choice. A potential consequence of moral condemnation is the scapegoating of entire groups. While it is true that vaccine uptake is greater among white adults, it is also the case for the vast majority of adults across all social groups. Nevertheless, if there is a connection between vaccine hesitancy and certain religious or ethnic groups, how should we respond without risking further stigmatisation? To what extent does this issue raise wider questions about social integration and trust in British institutions? With Dr Rakib Ehsan, Dr Alberto Giubilini, David Halpern and Dr Travis Rieder.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good evening. The so-called Indian variant of the COVID virus is likely only a few months old, |
| 0:05.5 | but its rapid spread in hotspots across the country has presented us with the most ancient of ethical dilemmas, |
| 0:11.6 | how to balance individual autonomy against the common good. The vast majority of those being |
| 0:16.6 | hospitalised in places like Blackburn and Bolton have been offered but refused the vaccine, |
| 0:21.4 | according to the health secretary. These are decisions that don't just carry consequences for them, |
| 0:26.3 | but potentially for us all, prolonging the pandemic and the ruinous state of semi-emergency |
| 0:31.3 | brought in to try to control it. The reasons for refusal vary. A failure of rationality, |
| 0:36.9 | some say, a sense of personal exceptionalism or an inability to assess risk. |
| 0:42.4 | There's certainly a lot of poisonous propaganda on social media, false stories, conspiracy theories. |
| 0:47.7 | But there's also an understandable legacy of suspicion in some communities, resulting from unethical scientific experimentation in the past. |
| 0:55.9 | Sincerely held religious beliefs are holding others back. It is a fact, according to the Office |
| 1:01.5 | for National Statistics, that black people are five times more likely to refuse vaccination |
| 1:06.4 | than whites, Muslims and Buddhists more opposed to the Jabs than Christians and non-believers. These are |
| 1:13.5 | fault lines that carry the risk of stigmatising and scapegoating whole sections of society. |
| 1:19.0 | What does this tell us about social integration and trust in our institutions? More importantly, |
| 1:25.2 | is there a moral responsibility to be vaccinated and what can we do about those who won't? |
| 1:31.3 | That's our moral maize tonight. The panel, Anne McElvoy, senior editor of the economist, |
| 1:35.6 | Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic and interreligious studies at Edinburgh University, |
| 1:40.1 | the historian Tim Stanley, and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA. Before you hear what the |
| 1:47.1 | witnesses have to say, panel, what's your starting point? Is having the vaccine a moral |
| 1:53.1 | duty, do you think, Tim? I'm certainly going to have the vaccine, but I do know people who are not |
| 1:58.8 | going to have it. And it seems to me, having discussed it with them, |
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