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 prioritization 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 prioritization for limited acute COVID‐19 care. Age discrimination in vaccine prioritization 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.