Caplan Urges ‘Prudence’ Through Winter Ahead of Vaccine Distribution

Medical ethicist Art Caplan joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, talking about the flurry of news on two promising coronavirus vaccines from U.S. developers Pfizer and Moderna.

Caplan cautioned that while word of the vaccines is promising, delays in distribution mean that people need to continue taking the pandemic seriously for foreseeable future.

"I’m worried that we’re going to forget that over the next couple of months, we’ve gotta be hyper-cautious,” he said. "We don’t [yet] have vaccines – we have flaring, forest-fire levels of virus all over the place… if we can just get through the dark winter, I think there’s a spring coming. But we’ve gotta get through the dark winter with prudence.”

Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine.