As The Phase II Trials Progress, Post Industrial Nations Must Grant Wide Indemnity To Ebola Vaccine Candidates

Just as the US Department of Health and Human Services has already declared, all other post-industrial nations ought to formally decree, as we wait for the vaccine trial outcomes, that administering any approved Ebola vaccine in accordance with its label (assuming a satisfactory Phase II trial result) will presumptively insulate all parties from liability for administering the vaccine to humans. It is time to act.

Wellcome Trust and CIDRAP just last week put out a 16 page PDF roadmap urging this action (at page 6) -- and setting various guidelines for what will be acceptable as candidate vaccines, and clinical trial outcomes. Do read all about it at Chemistry World this morning, but the World Health Organization ought to endorse it -- in its entirety -- immediately:

. . . .Finally, in December 2014, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued a declaration to provide liability protection (indemnity) for activities related to EVD vaccines; similar actions should be considered by other leading governments around the globe, such as the European Union, Japan, Brazil, India and China. . .

The US CDC ought to echo support for the roadmap as well. Here endeth my MLK Day 2015 sermon. But he would have agreed, for certain. Be of service today, to all your fellow humans.