Regulators must take action against darknet peddlers of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
Mintzes said there are ethical and public health issues arise from the availability of COVID-19 vaccines online even if the “Pfizer vaccines” being sold on darknet marketplaces are proven to be authentic.
“I don’t know how many people would actually be going on to the dark web to buy vaccines, but it does sound to me like the kind of thing that actually needs a regulatory response. If it’s a fraudulent activity because they’re not really selling the vaccine at all, then that’s one kind of regulatory response; if they’re actually selling the vaccine, as a pharmacist, then there’s a whole bunch of levels in which this is an unethical and criminal activity.”
The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is poised to be rolled out in the U.K. next week, wherein medical workers and senior citizens in care homes set to become the first recipients.
The British government is the first to formally approve the U.S.-German vaccine for widespread use. This means the country will be one of the first nations to begin vaccinating its population.
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