Compulsory vaccination was first introduced in the UK – where no vaccines are currently mandated – through the 1853 Vaccination Act. The law required that all children ‘whose health permits’ be vaccinated against smallpox, and obliged physicians to certify that vaccination had taken place. Parents who refused vaccination could be fined £1.
Since then, vaccine mandates have evolved to include a variety of incentives and penalties. In some US states, children cannot access public schools without being vaccinated; in Australia, compliance with childhood immunisation schedules has been linked to pre-school admission (‘No jab, no play’) and to family assistance payments (‘No jab, no pay’).
In most instances where vaccine mandates are in force, they apply only to childhood immunisation. However, vaccination is a condition of employment in some institutions – notably in healthcare facilities. This is not a legal mandate per se but is a form of discrimination accepted in several jurisdictions. In principle, mandates – like vaccines – can be for people of all ages.
The state of play in Europe
In Europe, the picture is mixed. A 2010 study of 27 EU countries (plus Iceland and Norway) found that 15 had no mandatory vaccines. In the meantime, Italy has added 10 vaccines to its list of compulsory vaccines; France and Romania are preparing new laws that would penalise parents of unvaccinated children; and Finland will introduce legislation in March 2018 that requires health and social care providers to ensure staff are immunised against measles, varicella, pertussis and influenza. The diversity of measures taken suggests no proven strategy exists that can be universally applied.
So, why is there a trend towards mandates and other legal instruments? Political science research on the value of international sanctions against rogue nations has found that while they are often ineffective, sanctions may give some satisfaction to the government implementing the rules. The same may apply to vaccine mandates. ‘Sanctions are often more about the sender than the recipient,’ says Dr Katie Attwell, University of Western Australia, ‘Maybe it’s more of an emotional experience for those who want to punish a country – or, in in the case of vaccinations, a citizen – that deviates from the norm.’
The impact of mandates in European countries has been assessed by the EU-funded ASSET project which found no clear link between vaccine uptake and mandatory vaccination. The report, which has been cited by the European Commission in response to questions from Members of the European Parliament states: ‘The enforcement of mandatory vaccinations does not appear to be relevant in determining childhood immunisation rate in the analysed countries. Those [countries] where a vaccination is mandatory do not usually reach better coverage than neighbour or similar countries where there is no legal obligation.’
ASSET experts have also argued that while mandatory vaccination might fix a short-term problem, it is not a long-term solution. Better organisation of health systems and strong communication strategies may prove more effective. ‘Mandatory vaccinations for both healthcare workers and the public can obtain a rapid improvement in immunisation rates, but in the end, have high costs, especially in term of litigation,’ says Dr Darina O’Flanagan, previous Director of Health Protection Surveillance Centre Ireland and a member of the Advisory Forum of the European Centre for Disease Control 2005-2016.
This is echoed by the EU Commissioner with responsibility for health, Dr Vytenis Andriukaitis ‘The legitimate goal of achieving the highest possible immunisation rates can be attained through less stringent policies, and most Member States prefer the adoption of ‘recommendation policies’ or else a mix of obligation/recommendation policies,’ according to EU Commissioner.
In the meantime, Italy – and by 2018, France and Romania – will be a real-world testbed for the implementation of broad vaccine mandates in the 21st century. Prof Pierluigi Lopalco, University of Pisa, says mandates may polarise public opinion. ‘Consider the Three Cs (Confidence, Complacency and Convenience),’ he says. ‘Mandates do not improve vaccine confidence; they make opposition to vaccination even stronger. However, they are a powerful way to break complacency and this new approach should make vaccination services more convenient and efficient.’
Conclusion
There is no one-size fits all approach to improving vaccine uptake. Some countries with mandates, such as Poland, have high vaccination rates; others, such as Finland, achieve similar results without mandates.
The real power of a mandate is not in coercing reluctant parents to vaccinate children against their will; it is in sending a signal to the wider population that vaccination is a vital part of public health. In this sense, the momentum generated by the debate on mandatory vaccination may have some positive effect. The risk, however, is that it will spark an anti-vaccine backlash equal to – or greater than – this positive signal. This risk would be amplified in cases where vaccine supply or access to vaccination services is not guaranteed, as has been the case in Romania.
A more promising move would be to invest in understanding the behavioural drivers of vaccine acceptance. Including this issue in the forthcoming EU Action Plan on Vaccination, due to be launched in 2018, would be a welcome initiative. In the meantime, it is essential that legislative changes be closely monitored in Italy, Romania, France and Finland – along with policy measures in Germany and other countries where mandates are not in place.
There may not be a silver bullet for vaccine hesitancy but research and sharing experiences are Europe’s best hope for controlling vaccine-preventable diseases.
Sunny
March 19th, 2020
Hi Gary,
It took me a while to research the above 2 links about long-term double-blind placebo studies. I admit I am again missing a satisfactory pro-vaccination explanation for the lack of double-blind placebo safety testing of vaccines.
The 2 studies above do make sense. But they apply only to the demand from anti-vaxxers for a *long-term* double-blind placebo study of the *entire vaccine schedule*. But then that is not the concern that is being brought up by many anti-vaxxers . (May be there are some anti-vaxxers who demand that. And the links above do a good job of responding to that demand).
But if we look at clinical trials of any individual vaccine on the schedule, there is almost none that have been tested against a placebo. The usual pro-vax answer to that is “that would be unethical because it would jeopardize the subject receiving the saline placebo. So instead of a placebo we use another vaccine with a known safety profile which itself was tested against a placebo or itself was tested with a control that was in turn tested against a saline placebo”.
But that is not turning out to be true.
If you try to trace back any vaccine on the current schedule and find out which control was used during the clinical trial and then in turn look at the original clinical trial of that control, you still don’t end up with a vaccine that was tested against a placebo.
In one case, Gardasil was tested against an aluminium compound, which is not even a vaccine —- and I am yet to find an explanation why)
Is my information accurate?
Evelyn
May 25th, 2020
I’ll be interested to see if Gary responds to this question.
Also, I too notice the high rate of corona in Italy and note that it is vacc covered. I believe vaccs weaken the immune system over-all by introducing too much, too soon (6 mo old) and too weird a list of ingredients for most immune systems to deal with.
I believe we need natural checks on our population, just like every other living creature on Earth has. I also believe we need to start having more conversations on death and dying and get more comfortable with humanity allowing nature to weed out our weak. If we don’t, we may end up with humans choosing which humans live and that, is never a good idea..
Gary Finnegan
May 25th, 2020
Hi Sunny,
We disagree with your opinion.
To address your feeling about ‘too much, too soon‘, here’s a piece from our FAQs. And another on vaccine ingredients.
Andokz
March 28th, 2020
Anyone seeing the connection between Italy’s mandatory vaccinations and corona virus
Gary Finnegan
March 30th, 2020
No.
Please share your theory and any supporting evidence you may have.
If not, perhaps you could hold your conspiracy theories and avoid capitalising on the misery that people in Italy, Spain and the rest of the world are suffering.
Erik
April 2nd, 2020
No brain washer , I dont want that vaccine , already had you disease and beat it !
Gary Finnegan
April 2nd, 2020
Well done, Erik. If you ‘beat’ coronavirus that’s great for you. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are dead and millions more are at risk. But it’s good that you’re alright and won’t be in the long queue for a vaccine next year.
SAra
June 21st, 2020
@Gary such irony is felt in your response. By all means be the first one to take the vaccine Gary. No problem there. People have different opinions but branding them Conspiracy theorists has become a new joke. We are talking about the virus about which we don’t know that much. How and just why are we so sure that vaccines are the right answer? As in general, I am not one bit surprised that people are becoming more and more sceptical about vaccines, including myself. Lack of transparency, conflict of interest.,list is long. Once the credibility is lost it’s lost for good.
Bob Miuller
May 17th, 2020
No, actually I sure don’t. I don’t even see how it has anything to do with the title of the story.
Silver
April 10th, 2020
@David and a chew
Zack
June 15th, 2020
@Sunny, I’d like to get in touch and compare findings. I too am a new parent and would like to look at solely the facts. I also find it disturbing that there is a lack of solid data to support that vaccines are safe and effective. I am not an “anti-vaxxer”, just a concerned, logical parent who would like to make the best possible choices for my children. My background is in engineering, so I prefer to take a logical approach and examine all the contributors. Please email me drummr8 at hotmail
Olga o sullivan
June 18th, 2020
Zack, very well said and I think every parent at the very least should ask questions about vaccines. It irritates me that people that wish to question their safety is automatically labelled an anti vaxxer!!
Anne Maguire
January 13th, 2021
Hi, I found this site because when seeking info on euro schedules with the worry the new vaccine could become mandatory.
I’m far from “anti-vaxx” and do think they can be very helpful part of a health protection strategy.
But this new Covid vaccine being both “warp speed “ and experiential is definitely not something I would like to have no choice in taking to access everyday services.
I was told that it was possible because Argentina was meant to now have a system where a person who hasn’t taken every shot on that schedule couldn’t do an extraordinary amount of things.
No school, no renewed passport, no driving licences, no gov benifits and no marriage licence.
That’s surely an outright attack on civil liberties, it’s de facto mandatory.
It takes a persons rights away to evaluate whether the whole lot is a god idea for their child and now with this Covid one for all adults if they followed suit.
(For kids I would have for example skipped the one that generally protects iv drug users and DWC workers, one of the hepatitis ones).
The way some euro countries are taking now we could end up like Argentina for this improvem shot and I for one don’t want to be a phase 4 participant in this one.
Gary Finnegan
January 15th, 2021
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your message. The COVID vaccine is not mandatory anywhere in Europe and I haven’t heard any government suggest this might happen.
Could you share some more information, ideally with links to relevant official websites, saying that people in Argentina cannot get married/drive etc. unless they are vaccinated?
Many thanks for taking the time to post here.
Gary
Lars
February 20th, 2022
Heard about mandatory covid-19 therapeutics and passports now?
Disgrace
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January 28th, 2021
[…] allowed ‘conscientious objection’ from mandatory vaccination. Mandatory vaccination remains a controversial topic today, with national governments divided over the best […]
george
April 22nd, 2021
Mandates are undemocratic. You cannot sidestep that issue by using the trivial word “signal” as your predication for destroying individual choice. The people who are against vaccines are not “anti-vaccinators” or any other negative epithet used to describe them; these people are simply choosing, based upon the data, that they do not need the vaccine. Democracy is about legislation. If you cannot convince the majority, then clearly your argument is not very good. Using mandates to eliminate the need for a majority is totalitarian in construct.
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April 30th, 2021
[…] As Europe battles measles outbreaks, Italy, Romania, France and Finland are tightening their vaccination laws. The benefits are questionable. — Weiterlesen http://www.vaccinestoday.eu/stories/mandatory-vaccination-work-europe/ […]
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May 29th, 2021
[…] give greater freedom to some would be both unequal and unfair. There are precedents: for example, in some countries, children who have not been vaccinated according to the national immunisation calendar (and don’t […]
Ralph
September 2nd, 2021
This seems to be the only virus in history that a vaccine for 8 billion people is the only solution. If everyone on Earth caught COVID only 99.8 percent of us would be left. Oh the humanity! Why not just get an effective treatment see the FLCCC website. Joe Rogan beat COVID. If the vaccine is so awesome why not open the companies who make vaccines up to liability for the thousands who have been killed from these vaccines. Check VAERS. Only 53 people died from the vaccine for the Swine flu in 1976 and it was stopped yet thousands die from this vaccine yet we still give it out like candy and now we get free boosters. How many must die before the vaccine is pulled? If they have to pay you to get something then I don’t want it.
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November 11th, 2022
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