Center-sponsored Vaccine Rationing Project

At our Sponsors' request, in December 2005 the Center initiated a community-wide project to develop ethical guidance for rationing vaccines during a severe influenza pandemic. We convened an ethics work group that included approximately 35 people with experience and expertise in health care ethics, public health, infectious disease, health care administration, spirituality and faith, journalism, economics, law, and community service. This group's recommendations were issued in 2006 and published in Vaccine the following year.

Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project (sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Health and funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)


One of the participants in our vaccine project was the State Epidemiologist. The success of the Center's work inspired the Minnesota Department of Health to request proposals to develop ethical guidance for statewide rationing of a wider range of health-related resources during a pandemic. The Center and the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics were awarded a joint contract to conduct the Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project. In 2007 we convened a broad-based community panel to recommend ethical frameworks for rationing scarce health-related resources during a severe influenza pandemic. Specifically, the project considered shortages of:

  • Antivirals for both treatment and prevention
  • N95 respirators
  • Surgical masks
  • Vaccines
  • Mechanical ventilators.

Several expert workgroups and an implementation protocol committee advised the panel. Together, the participants numbered over 100, and their expertise and experience was far-reaching.

 

Expanded Public Engagement

To solicit broader input, various subsets of the project team conducted several additional public engagement activities in 2009:

  • Solicitation of written comments to the preliminary report submitted electronically or by mail
  • Day-long Community Forums in Duluth and Owatonna held in April and May 2009
  • Nine small group discussions (six hours each) held in greater Minnesota and in the Twin Cities metro area.

The panel reconvened in August 2009 to consider the public's advice and finalize its recommendations. Click here: Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project.

At the Minnesota Department of Health's request, Center staff analyzed the applicability of the panel's ethical frameworks to other public health disasters. While some of the project's recommendations are unique to the singular event of a severe pandemic, much of what was learned can inform other disaster planning.

For a list of our reports and publications on pandemic ethics, see our Publications page.