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Animal Ethics Biosafety Human Research Ethics Research Integrity

Ethical or exploitative—should prisoners participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials? – Science (Eli Cahan | September 2020)

Posted by Dr Gary Allen in Human Research Ethics on September 20, 2020
Keywords: Beneficence, Clinical trial, Consent, Medical research, Merit and integrity, Protection for participants, Researcher responsibilities, Respect for persons
COVID-19 heading

As 38 clinical trials seek tens of thousands of volunteers to receive doses of experimental vaccines, researchers are discussing how to find and recruit participants effectively and ethically. Some people who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 have not been well represented in studies—or represented at all. Prisoners, for instance, have borne a heavy burden of COVID-19, with more than 125,000 U.S. prisoners infected, and more than 1000 dead. But prisoners have also been excluded from the trials out of concern that they might be coerced into participating or exploited if they do.

Prisoners in pandemic research are not only a group in an unequal relationship, they are a vulnerable group in a captive relationship.  Their involvement in such research is ethically troubling for much the same reasons we are concerned about heart research based on hearts from Chinese prisoners.

Now, some researchers argue that including prisoners in studies could offer outsize health benefits. Correctional facilities have experienced many COVID-19 outbreaks and are structurally unsuited to social distancing (among other precautions). And so, the researchers argue, like other people at high risk of catching the disease, prisoners should be allowed to participate in clinical trials.

As 38 clinical trials seek tens of thousands of volunteers to receive doses of experimental vaccines, researchers are discussing how to find and recruit participants effectively and ethically. Some people who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 have not been well represented in studies—or represented at all. Prisoners, for instance, have borne a heavy burden of COVID-19, with more than 125,000 U.S. prisoners infected, and more than 1000 dead. But prisoners have also been excluded from the trials out of concern that they might be coerced into participating or exploited if they do.

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