The Catholic Health Association (CHA) of the United States believes the principles of Catholic Social Teaching can be applied to ensure a potential vaccine against COVID-19 is safe, effective and available to everyone.

Those fundamentals include the dignity of the human person, solidarity, the common good, subsidiarity, and the preferential option for vulnerable persons.

The coronavirus has a higher impact on the older population, lower-income communities, those with preexisting health issues and minorities, the CHA said in a release recently issued on it's website. The pandemic has shined a light on the struggle some people have when it comes to accessing things as simple as treatment, nutritious foods, a safe place to live and making enough money to survive. The CHA believes all those factors contribute to health conditions that would cause a person to be at greater risk of catching the virus and experiencing a worse outcome than someone in a better position than they are in.

The association has noted from past experience that significant problems can come about if an agreement cannot be made when it comes to distributing the vaccines. It could become a global competition to obtain supplies of the precious medicine, leaving poorer countries largely left out when in reality they are in the greatest need.

All of those are reasons why the CHA wants to make sure that when it comes to a COVID-19 vaccine, it is tested thoroughly and proven to be safe, it is tested morally and is successful scientifically. The association also wants to make sure creating the vaccine respects human dignity and is distributed equally with priority given to people who are more susceptible to catching the virus. 

It will take everyone working together; including local governments, health care providers and religious leaders; to create and fairly distribute a vaccine that works, the CHA said.