Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Covid-19 and the ‘deserving’ vulnerable

Stuart Blume and Vesna Trifunović 3rd May 2022

In public vaccination programmes, all humans should be equal. But some have proved more equal than others.

vulnerable,migrants,refugees,minorities,vaccination,vaccine
The elderly were prioritised as vulnerable in vaccination programmes—disadvantaged minorities at risk not so (Drazen Zigic / shutterstock.com)

In mid-2020 it was widely believed that, once we had a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, life would return to normal. The complex issues which would arise thereafter were ignored. What if many people refused the vaccine? Who would be liable for serious vaccine-related adverse events? Would rich countries monopolise (initially limited) supplies? If so what could be done—and by whom?

A year or so later, these questions became insistent, especially one: which groups were to be given priority as vaccine roll-out began?

Two years on, the pandemic has receded in Europe and anxieties are focused elsewhere. There is little interest in reviving discussion of viruses and vaccines. Yet despite the tragedy now playing out in Ukraine (and in Russia), the coronavirus has not gone away. It is quite likely that winter will again present public-health systems with a viral threat, possibly due to a further mutation of the virus.

However pressing our current concerns, we have a breathing space for rethinking pandemic practices. What lessons can be learned from two years’ struggle with Covid-19?

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

Repeating mistakes

Two years ago we were led to expect too much from a vaccine. Focusing exclusively on the search for improved vaccines would be a mistake, however great the temptation. Because the interests involved, both commercial and strategic, are as powerful as they were in 2020, there is a risk that this mistake will be repeated.

The rest of the agenda must not again be forgotten. Improved mechanisms for facilitating distribution of pandemic vaccines to poor countries will be needed. And the basis for establishing priorities at the national level needs rethinking.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, pandemic-preparedness scenarios focused on the influenza virus. When a vaccine against a pandemic influenza strain arrived, who should receive it first? Priority would be given to healthcare personnel and to people at greatest risk in the event of infection: the immune-compromised and the frail elderly.

As roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines began, some variants of these criteria were commonly adopted. Though the specific demarcations varied among countries, these two groups were prioritised in much of Europe. For example, in Italy:

In order to maximize the result, the strategic decision was to focus the use of the limited resources available on protecting personnel dedicated to pandemic emergency and on the most fragile subjects (health and social health workers, the staff and guests of residential facilities for the elderly). Thanks to the increase in the availability of vaccines the vaccination process started to be carried out also on other risk categories and then on the rest of the general population.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

In the United Kingdom the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised government that the priorities for the vaccination programme should be the prevention of Covid-19 mortality and the protection of staff and systems in health and social care. After these could come those at increased risk of hospitalisation or exposure and maintaining resilience in essential public services.

The Dutch Health Council originally recommended prioritising groups at increased risk of serious illness and death: the over-60s and those suffering from certain chronic conditions, being treated with immune-suppressors or with mental disorders and living in institutions. Anxiety among healthcare workers, and lobbying, led to their being added to the list.

Much more inclusive

Early national guidelines and policies such as these did not reflect what a global perspective would have implied. World Health Organization interim guidance emphasised a much more inclusive view, highlighting ‘the vulnerabilities, risks and needs of groups including refugees and migrant populations who—because of underlying societal, geographical or biomedical factors—are at significantly higher risk of severe disease and death’ from Covid-19.

The WHO guidance specified, that, depending on country context, these groups included ‘disadvantaged or persecuted ethnic, racial, gender and religious groups and sexual minorities’, as well as ‘the homeless and those living in informal settlements or urban slums; low-income migrant workers; refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs), including vulnerable migrants in irregular situations’.

In few cases, howver, did initial national guidelines refer to such groups. The vulnerabilities of refugees and undocumented migrants—and we could add prison inmates—were not acknowledged.

‘Deserving’ vulnerable

Much did change over time and, as larger quantities of vaccines became available, some countries did adopt more inclusive immunisation policies. But the contrast between the WHO perspective and the various national guidelines says something significant about the political salience of ‘global health’.

As in earlier debates about absolute and relative poverty, individuals deemed ‘vulnerable’ in one place may appear anything but in another. No less striking is the moral judgement underpinning many affluent countries’ prioritisations. Did governments and their advisers in effect prioritise the ‘deserving’ vulnerable—with little regard for the possibly greater risks the ‘less worthy’ faced or which they posed to the community?

The war in Ukraine has brought to Europe a changed awareness of refugees and other displaced people. The question is whether popular sympathy for their plight will affect perceptions of them—and their public-health needs—more generally.

Stuart Blume

Stuart Blume is emeritus professor of science and technology studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Vesna Trifunović

Vesna Trifunović has a PhD in anthropology and is a research associate at the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade.

Home ・ Society ・ Covid-19 and the ‘deserving’ vulnerable

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

trade,values,Russia,Ukraine,globalisation Peace and trade—a new perspectiveGustav Horn
biodiversity,COP15,China,climate COP15: negotiations must come out of the shadowsSandrine Maljean-Dubois
reproductive rights,abortion,hungary,eastern europe,united states,us,poland The uneven battlefield of reproductive rightsAndrea Pető
LNG,EIB,liquefied natural gas,European Investment Bank Ukraine is no reason to invest in gasXavier Sol
schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube