The (Contrasted) Ethics of Covid-19 and HIV: Will the Favor be Returned?

Abstract

With 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4291 global mortalities, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The origins were believed to be from Wuhan, China, and SARS CoV-2, a coronavirus, was quickly identified as the causative organism. Researchers at the National Institute of Health Vaccine Research Center identified the spike protein as the critical portion of the virus that allows for attachment to human cells. In just 66 days after identifying the genetic sequence, the first COVID-19 vaccine candidate began the enrollment of human subjects into a Phase I clinical trial. This accelerated effort was due to a collective and collaborative global response. Currently, one COVID-19 vaccine has been approved and two others have received an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, there has been a clear comparison of the COVID-19 response efforts and that which was utilized in addressing the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. For over four decades, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been historically defined by a disproportionate number of infections and related mortalities amongst racially and ethnically minoritized individuals, including those that identify as homosexual. While novel drug therapies have been developed for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; there have been key components employed amid the global health response to COVID-19, that have been absent from the management of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Majorly, the development and availability of vaccine against HIV/AIDS. Many of the ideas and initiatives that have resulted in a positive COVID-19 response and the eventual successful vaccination development; have been those learned from the trial and error of mitigating increasing global rates of HIV/AIDS infections. Hence, the question remains as to whether the lessons and approaches learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely vaccination development, will be applied to managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Herein, we aim to compare the HIV/AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic, by describing how the fight against HIV/AIDs equipped global scientific leaders with effective strategies to overcome future public health crises (COVID-19), discuss the ethical considerations associated with the differences in the global health responses to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic versus the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally, identify lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that can be applied to the quest for an HIV/AIDS vaccine..