The Director was invited by the UWI’s COVID-19 Task Force to contribute to a joint webinar, entitled “Ethical Issues in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean - a Review”, hosted by the Jamaican National Bioethics Committee (JNBC) for UNESCO and the UWI COVID-19 Task Force on Sunday, August 23rd, 2020.

His presentation entitled “Where are we now with COVID-19 vaccines?” provided the historical background of vaccines, thereby providing the audience with some context of vaccines and vaccination, and moving forward into the current COVID-19 vaccine development progress. The unprecedented nature of global vaccine development in response to COVID-19 was identified, whilst also highlighting the advent of new RNA and DNA vaccines that have revolutionised the speed at which vaccines are developed. The challenges that lie beyond vaccine development such as production capacity, hazard management during distribution, and vaccine administration were also highlighted. The series of ethical issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccines were also raised including the geopolitical challenges of efficient global distribution, mandating of vaccination and labour rights, human rights to refuse vaccination, vaccine hesitancy and a suggestion of the establishment a regional ethical organization to tackle future biomedical ethical matters was advanced.

The session was well attended and very enlightening, evidenced by a highly engaging Question and Answer segment subsequent to the featured presentations.