Vaccine Hesitancy: What It All Boils Down To.
At this point, we have all heard of France’s Pass Sanitaire and the chaos it unleashed across the country. Two hundred and forty thousand people taking to the streets of France for the fifth weekend in a row to demonstrate their resolute rejection of the “health dictatorship” supposedly overrunning the country. The protested bill unveiled on June 20th introduced new laws making it mandatory for health workers to get vaccinated. It further necessitates that all individuals wishing to enter restaurants, pubs, bars, and clubs obtain a Passe Sanitaire stating they have either had the vaccine, a negative test, or have recently recovered from Covid. With these protests haven now taken hold in France, Germany, Italy, and Greece, we believe it is about time our society revisits the vaccine certification debate and evaluates Europe’s position on the matter. It is important to note that this article shall not provide an answer to the moral dilemma posed by mandatory vaccine certification. Instead, we simply seek to draw light to the sensitivity and complexity involved in the task of introducing laws enforcing such certification.
A number of protestors have even resorted to distastefully (and inaccurately) comparing their anti-vax plight to that of the Jews with Nazi-ism. Consequently, there have been concerns raised by academics such as Marie Paule Kieny, director of research at Inserm, regarding the potential influence this small portion of the European population could have on the ongoing Coronavirus response. Nevertheless, this negative response to the Pass Sanitaire throughout France must not outweigh the positive effect it has had on vaccine uptake. These policies have namely been identified by reporters such as Anna Gross from the Financial Times as having significantly increased the number of French citizens taking vaccine, and the current support for these policies has been revealed to lie at 60% throughout France.[1] The implementation of mandatory vaccine certification has been seen to have had similar positive effects in Italy, and as such it seems that the underlying support for laws enforcing a form of vaccine certification is in fact higher throughout Europe than the number of people opposing them. The odd ball out in this new race for vaccine certification has ended up being, as is by this point uncomfortably predictable, the United Kingdom.
The topic of vaccine certification is no doubt a complex one. Approaching it must be done sensitively, with particular care paid to the potential infringements of civil liberties. Similar objections and protests to the ones we are now experiencing throughout Europe took place following the introduction of laws requiring seatbelts to be worn at all times in cars; preventing smoking on public transport and in public places; and those preventing individuals from drink-driving. The difference being pointed out between these previous laws and the new ones forcing people to take a Covid vaccine is the infringement of bodily integrity. The question is therefore whether this infringement of a minority’s liberty is necessary to protect the wider population’s right to protection from a deadly virus. As effectively established by Guardian reporter, David Robert Grimes, “unvaccinated populations still pose a threat even to the vaccinated”. Whose rights should therefore prevail? As aforementioned, this article does not seek to provide an answer to such a multi-faceted question, but rather to draw attention to the complications involved in imposing legislation making vaccine certification mandatory.
Yet other European countries have managed to do so, although not flawlessly, without losing the majority support of their country. We must wonder then, what is it preventing Britain from doing the same? Could it truly be that our population is simply overwhelmingly prejudiced against mandatory vaccinations? This could be presented as our answer. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that our populations’ standpoint on vaccine certification is so strongly opposed to the rest of Europe. Germany, for example, has consistently experienced high levels of opposition against the implementation of vaccine certification.[2] However, this has failed to prevent Angela Merkel from beginning rollout of the digital vaccine certificate in June 2021. Macron has similarly managed to hold on to his majority despite the controversy caused by the Passe Sanitaire. Since Friday 6th August Italians have been living with their alternative Green Pass, and reporters such as Jason Horowitz have reported increasing acceptance of its use by Italians since this date.[3] As such, it has been overwhelmingly demonstrated by surrounding European countries that enforcing a requirement for vaccine certification against opposition is not an impossible feat for governing bodies to accomplish.
This has lead Guardian reporter Andrew Rawnsley to make an interesting argument in his article entitled There’s a case for vaccine passports, but ministers are failing to make it, offering a different explanation for Britain’s delayed response. In this piece Rawnsley uses an effective analogy of the well-versed case of ‘Typhoid Mary’ to demonstrate the dangers the unvaccinated pose in a vaccinated society. ‘Typhoid Mary’ is the title awarded to the Irish cook Mary Mallon who worked in New York in the early 20th century. Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of a bacterial infection called Typhoid which can have deadly consequences. When detained and informed of her disease, Mallon refused the only operation that could cure her, unconvinced that as she was that she was the carrier. In her denial, she ignored advice offered by authorities as a condition of her release. As such, Mallon is believed to have infected over 100 people, and caused the death of between 3-50, before she was detained for the final time in 1915 and imprisoned for the remaining 23 years of her life. Rawnsley hereby argues that the UK government’s key fault in preparing the groundwork for the introduction of vaccine certification has been its failure to install the immediate urgency of total vaccine uptake throughout the British population in order to protect British lives. He then continues his article by laying out the hesitant and stealthy way in which the Westminster has attempted to introduce vaccination certification. This came in the form of repeated contradictory statements by ministers, in one instance denying any thought of such certification, the next announcing their imminent introduction. Accordingly, despite no bills having been passed to date, the “suspicion about their [Westminster’s] motives” created through these contradictory announcements has fuelled underlying disapproval and contempt for vaccine certification.[4] The UK population, after eighteen months of its government hinting and hiding their true intent, is ready to pounce at any suggestion of introducing vaccine certification.
Thus, could the reason for Britain’s evident lag in the race to implement vaccine certification boil down to the larger issue of distrust in this government’s ability to handle such a sensitive matter with the care and consideration it so desperately requires? Repeated infringements of constitutional principles and human rights over the past year that have occurred throughout Westminster’s attempts at ‘handling’ the Coronavirus outbreak prove that this distrust is not unfounded. Nevertheless, it seems as though the UK government may not be able to avoid their duty to protect the wider British population from the threat of unvaccinated groups for much longer. We are interested to see which approach Westminster shall decide to take when this matter is forced upon them, and so keep coming back the GES Blog for updates on the case of vaccine certification throughout Europe
The subjects we have attempted to tackle today are multi-dimensional and significantly more reading is required to make an informed decision on the ethical standing of vaccine certification throughout Europe. If you are interested in learning more on the matter or wish to enlighten yourself with some interesting perspectives, check out the links below!
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/8e94ff2e-6bf0-442c-be60-385ffc393f53
[2] https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12889-021-11166-0.pdf
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/world/europe/italy-green-pass-vaccination-covid.html
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/01/there-is-a-case-for-vaccine-passports-but-ministers-are-failing-to-make-it
Further Links:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/covid-passports-government-vaccine
