Mandatory vaccines

The emergence of the latest Covid-19 variant of concern, Omicron, further ramped up the pressures on governments to make decisive interventions before their health systems are overwhelmed. With its unusually high levels of mutations, the Omicron variant might mean faster transmission and higher resistance to our current crop of vaccines. Thankfully, initial research from South Africa suggests that existing vaccines and boosters should still provide some measure of protection from hospitalisation or worse. Moreover, modern development and production methods should allow for the creation of an adjusted vaccine in a matter of months rather than years.

But many developed countries where vaccines are readily available have seen a relatively modest uptake. EU members Romania and Bulgaria, for example, have under 40 percent of their populations fully vaccinated. Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the President of the United States, reckons lasting community protection can be reached only after nearly 90 percent of the population is jabbed.

Thus, as they try to mitigate the threat posed by high case rates and the spread of Omicron, governments are introducing new policies to increase vaccination uptake in their countries.

The relatively politically palatable option of requiring vaccine passports for entering certain venues and shops, and thereby making the lives of unvaccinated people more restricted, has already been used extensively across Europe, despite it triggering significant protests in many countries, including Italy, Croatia and the Netherlands.

Policymakers in many countries may, therefore, be tempted to follow Austria’s lead and introduce vaccine mandates in the near future to reduce hospitalisation rates and avoid more economically damaging restrictions. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already called for a debate on mandatory vaccines and Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Schulz, also voiced support for vaccine mandates.

Yet, government-imposed vaccine mandates can have serious long-term consequences – they can brew social unrest, increase mistrust in government, and scar societies as severely as the pandemic itself.

In Austria, draft legislation has suggested that those unvaccinated would be ‘summoned’ to some administrative authority and could eventually incur fines of up to 3,600 euros (about $4,060). With millions still unvaccinated, it may not take long for hundreds of thousands of Austrians to be reprimanded. Tens of thousands of Austrians have already been protesting, sensing a government overreach.

Most people who are hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine are not loud, somewhat unhinged anti-vaxxers who worry about being implanted with tracking chips through the jab. Many of them are sincerely concerned about introducing something new into their bodies, or simply want to understand the risks and benefits of the jab better.

Excerpted: ‘Mandatory COVID-19 vaccines are not the solution’

Courtesy: Aljazeera.com