Ethics of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination: a scoping review

Vaccination against life-threatening infectious illnesses is an important medical contribution that saves millions of lives worldwide each year. However, vaccine development and its use often attracted significant ethical controversies. The ethical deliberations around vaccine research and use often utilize public health ethics principles where the benefit of the community at large or the common good is considered as the goal of ethical deliberations over benefits at the individual level. A scoping review of the literature regarding mandatory COVID-19 vaccination showed that many scholars recommended such a strategy based on the harm principle, and there is not much literature regarding other ethical principles that can be utilized to promote mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.