Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom oppose compulsory vaccination at the same time as France is about to enact the vaccine pass law.
France is always one war behind. While the vaccination pass, this disguised obligation to vaccinate, was voted with difficulty last Sunday by the parliament and the law must be promulgated -and thus be applied from this weekend-, other countries are making the opposite choice.
In Belgium, the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC), asked by the Federal Minister of Health, Franck Vandenbroucke, has issued an unfavorable opinion on compulsory vaccination.
The Committee believes that a mandatory vaccination campaign is only “acceptable” if three conditions are met. “Compulsory vaccination must be necessary to implement a global protection strategy; several scientific uncertainties must be resolved; and a law must be passed after debate in parliament.
These three conditions have not been met.
Boycott of 100,000 German doctors
In Germany, if the vaccination obligation were to be decided by the authorities, the country’s 100,000 or so contracted doctors would “probably not” apply it, estimated Andreas Gassen, head of the Health Insurance doctors.
“We will not ask our doctors to carry out an obligation of vaccination against the will of the patients,” he said to the press, adding that “a medical practice lives on the trust between the doctor and the patient. Doctor’s offices are “not a place to impose state measures… If compulsory vaccination were to go ahead and Medicare maintained doctors their boycott, unvaccinated people would have to get their shots either from the 2,500 or so doctors in the public health service or at vaccination centers .”
In the UK, we wrote, mask wearing will no longer be legally required as of January 27, 2022, telecommuting will no longer be officially recommended, and a health pass will no longer be required for access to nightclubs and certain large gatherings. “As Covid becomes endemic, we need to replace legal requirements with advice and recommendations,” said Johnson.