As the COVID-19 pandemic peaks once again and the Delta variant fills hospitals across the country, there has been some talk of triaging patients based upon their vaccination status. Obviously this raises many ethical issues.
In this episode I review some of the implications raised by this potential contingency. Fundamentally, it is unethical to triage based upon vaccination status. At the moment, there is limited data regarding morbidity and mortality of matched cohort patients when comparing critically ill vaccinated vs unvaccinated. This data is being gathered, but at this point there is not enough to support triaging on this basis. Additionally there are some patients that are unable to be vaccinated due to medical comorbidities or status as a minor. Concessions would have to be made for each of these various circumstances.
What are your thoughts on triaging care based upon a patient’s vaccination status?
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