Age discrimination, the right to life and COVID-19 vaccination in countries with limited resources

This paper seeks to develop and apply a simple yardstick based on remaining life expectancy to assess whether specific health policies unfairly discriminate against people on the basis of their age. This reveals that the COVID-19 vaccine prioritisation policies of several countries have discriminated against older people. Conversely, the exclusion of older people from COVID-19 vaccine testing is shown to be non-discriminatory, as is some degree of age prioritisation for limited acute COVID-19 care. Age discrimination in vaccine prioritisation is shown to be embedded in wider ageist attitudes in health policy, which give the lives of older people a lower social value than the lives of people at younger ages.