The Case for Free Vaccines

“In the meantime, perhaps given their impressive track record, free-to-consumer vaccines are something we can all get behind.”

The United States federal government entered into a deal last week to purchase 100 million doses of a yet-unfinished Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The vaccine entered late-stage human trials on July 27th, with the hope that it will be approved before the year’s end. If and when it obtains Food and Drug Administration approval, the vaccine will be delivered at no cost to the consumer, regardless of insurance status.

Some commentators have pointed out that this seems like a curious play for a Republican administration—something we might expect from Canada or European countries, where governments play a larger role in the purchase and distribution of medical services. Others have been more forthright in leveraging this move to critique the current health care system. As Vox co-founder Matt Yglesias put it on Twitter: “I wonder if there are any true atheists in the foxhole who think a Covid vaccine should be distributed globally purely according to ability/willingness to pay?”

Whether and to what extent the federal government should provide medical goods and services for citizens is a hotly contested issue in American politics. The debate is more complicated than many are willing to acknowledge, encompassing issues of morality, philosophy, and economics that have no clear-cut answers.

There are also fundamental questions about health care that are less settled than the average person may believe, such as: Does it actually improve health? (The evidence gleaned from the best experiments is pretty underwhelming.) There is a widespread belief among doctors that Americans are, in fact, overconsuming health care. A survey of over 2,000 physicians found that two-thirds believed at least fifteen to thirty percent of medical care was unnecessary. Likewise, doctors have observed that most patients seem to be doing “just fine,” despite abstaining from visiting the doctor during the pandemic.