Coronavirus: Britons should be paid to take COVID-19 vaccine, says Oxford professor

People should be paid to have a COVID-19 jab so the country reaches herd immunity as quickly as possible, a leading ethicist has suggested.

Professor Julian Savulescu from the University of Oxford said incentives would help to overcome rising vaccine hesitancy due to perceived safety concerns.

People could either be given a financial inducement to have the jab or they could be paid in kind, perhaps foregoing the need to wear a facemask in public, he writes in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

“The advantage of payment for risk is that people are choosing voluntarily to take it on,” he says.

“As long as we are accurate in conveying the limitations in our confidence about the risks and benefits of a vaccine, then it is up to individuals to judge whether they are worth payment.”

To achieve herd immunity, which would stop the coronavirus spreading and end the epidemic, somewhere between 50 and 80% of the population would have to be protected.

Prof Savulescu says that there is a case for mandatory vaccination because of the “grave” threat to public health.