EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has spoken out in favor of examining a general corona vaccination requirement in the European Union. “We should possibly think about a mandatory vaccination in the EU,” said von der Leyen on Wednesday in Brussels. She justified this, among other things, with the spread of the new Omikron variant. Von der Leyen said: “We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” In two to three weeks, the scientists would know more about the risks. The possibly necessary adaptation of the vaccines will then “take around a hundred days”.
In several countries there is already compulsory vaccination for individual groups: in France around 3,000 nurses have been suspended from duty because they cannot be vaccinated. According to the French media, the government in Paris said that this did not lead to any problems with health care.
The government of President Emmanuel Macron also wants to limit the validity of vaccination certificates, which amounts to an obligation to have a booster vaccination: From December 15, a certificate for people over 65 is only valid for a maximum of six months and five weeks. After this period the certificate is no longer valid. After that, the owners must either show a recovery or take a test.
In Ukraine, mandatory vaccinations for civil servants, hospital staff, nurses and social workers will come into force on December 9th. Those who do not get vaccinated should be fired. There is a symbolic one-time payment for the vaccination.
In some US states, hospital staff are also required to be vaccinated. According to the New York Times, this has resulted in an emergency room on Long Island having to be closed because too many employees quit duty. In the United States, a district judge in Kentucky stopped US President Joe Biden’s plans on Wednesday: Biden wanted to impose a compulsory vaccination on all employees of service providers for state authorities. Some states had sued against it. In his ruling, however, the judge expressly said that the president had the authority to impose compulsory vaccinations. In the specific case, however, this is not permissible for reasons of competence. The debate about compulsory vaccination has been bitter in the US for a few days. For example, the well-known financial journalist Jim Cramer demanded on CNBC that the military should carry out compulsory vaccinations on all those who do not want to be vaccinated. You are in the “war against the virus” and anyone who is not vaccinated is a danger to their fellow human beings, said Cramer.
In Europe, Greece has introduced compulsory vaccination for people over 60. All people in this age group receive a state summons and must be vaccinated. From Tuesday to Wednesday, around 20,000 older people made an appointment for their first vaccination – that’s a good ten times as many as the usual daily average. These figures were named by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in parliament on Wednesday. From January 16 fines are due, unvaccinated people of this age group then have to pay a monthly fine of 100 euros.
“Nine out of ten Greeks who die (of Covid-19) are over 60 years old, eight out of ten are not vaccinated,” the prime minister justified the measure in parliament. If these people remained unprotected, they put a disproportionate burden on the health system because they were more at risk. Older people in particular are reluctant to vaccinate; in November only 70,000 of this group of 580,000 people decided to be vaccinated.
Austria wants to introduce a general vaccination requirement on February 1st. Such an obligation currently exists in Indonesia, Micronesia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, the Vatican and the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia, which belongs to France. In Austria, after the announcement of the mandatory vaccination, demonstrations took place in numerous cities across the country. In Upper Austria, hospital employees had already demonstrated and announced that they would change jobs if vaccination was compulsory.
The compulsory vaccination in the whole EU is “a discussion that has to be held”, said Ursula von der Leyen. A common approach by the member states is required.
The pandemic is also a topic at the first EU summit on December 16 and 17, in which Scholz is likely to take part as Chancellor. The decision on the introduction of compulsory vaccination rests with the individual member states. However, the EU Commission plays a coordinating role and is responsible for the contracts with the vaccine manufacturers.
However, the Commission has so far refused to provide information about the people who are negotiating the contracts with the pharmaceutical companies. A request from EU parliamentarians to clarify possible conflicts of interest was rejected. However, the research platform Investigate Europe (IE) has taken on the topic and uncovered numerous connections.
IE has uncovered a number of conflicts of interest: The Swede Richard Bergström, who works as his country’s vaccine coordinator on the EU’s steering committee, worked in the private pharmaceutical sector for almost three decades before working for the government in Stockholm, including five years as head of the European pharmaceutical sector Lobby, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). In addition to his EU work, Bergström also works for the Swiss consultancy Hoelzle Buri Partners Consulting (HBPC), which offers lobby services for European and US pharmaceutical companies. According to the transparency watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), other EU officials are or have been in the service of the pharmaceutical industry.