COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine shortage:

analysis about the (dis) compliance with fundamental rights and the bioethical principle of justice in the private acquisition of vaccines

Abstract

Faced with a scenario of coping with the pandemic, shortage of and the manifest interest of the private sector in acquiring immunizers, a question was established: considering the Brazilian context, the acquisition and application of vaccines against COVID-19 by legal entities governed by private law, measure approved by Federal Law n. 14.125/2021, would it imply in an eventual outrage to the fundamental rights to life, equality and health, to the fundamental triad of the Unique Health System  SUS and to the bioethical principle of justice? It was established as a hypothesis that the permission represents the prioritization of an economically privileged part of the society to the detriment of the public health strategy, usurping the function granted by the Federal Constitution to the Unique Health System SUS and materialized through the National Plan for the Operationalization of the Vaccine against COVID-19 PNO, violating the fundamental rights and the justice criteria proposed for the correct distribution of scarce resources in health system. For the development of the theme, the hypothetical-deductive scientific method, the monographic procedure method and the techniques of bibliographic and documentary research were used. It was unraveled the context of a pandemic and vaccine shortage in the international context and consequent repercussions in Brazil, besides studying the constitutional fundamental rights, the bioethical principle of justice and the possibility of acquisition and distribution of immunizers directly by private companies. In addition to confirming the presented hypothesis, it was investigated the World Health Organization WHO’s categorization of the immunization process as global public good GPG and the total incompatibility of Federal Law n. 14.125/2021 to the Brazilian constitutional order.