Get vaccinated, or get punished? How to distribute the jab mandate

With Austria Set to become the first country in Europe to implement a COVID-19 vaccination on Friday, AFP looks at vaccine orders in Europe – and whether they work:

– backlash, workaround –

In Austria, those who do not get vaccinated against COVID under the new mandate will face a 600-euro ($670) fine.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets almost every week to protest against the decision.

In other countries, officials have flip-flopped about directly enforcing the mandate or implementing alternative measures to punish non-coercives.

But Anne-Marie Moulin, the doctor and philosopher who advises on vaccine policy in France, said hesitant governments could give the impression of political motivations, true or not – behind the measures not just health concerns.

And in France, even though no direct mandate exists, many have accused his government of violating their civil liberties.

Meanwhile, there is evidence that mandates can turn people away from jobs, while leaving people out can have positive results for elections.

In September, when UK media reported that the government was considering requiring healthcare workers to get Covid-19 jabs, physician and vaccine expert Peter English warned that turning away the option could lead to backlash.

“Most health care workers choose to vaccinate in advance … and, as long as they are given the time needed to vaccinate, they do so,” he remarked at the time.

He said some of those who had not yet been caught were hesitant, while very few held “irrational, anti-vaccine beliefs”.

“You are unlikely…

By some estimates, Sweden has managed to vaccinate more than 90 percent of its population without a mandate.

And other Scandinavian countries also report high levels of vaccination without implying the results.

In France, jabs against COVID are not mandatory, but the state has implemented a mandatory vaccination pass to access most social activities, thus punishing them by banning them from places like restaurants and museums.

Historian Laurent-Henri Vignod insisted, however, that this was very different from the law requiring vaccination.

“In one case you are saying, ‘The protective position is … telling you what you should do’,” he told AFP about the option that was ruled out.

“And in the other you’re saying, ‘Do what you want, but your choices will make a difference in whether or not you can fully participate in social activities.

– Smallpox History Lessons –

Sweden was one of the first countries to implement a vaccine mandate to prevent a deadly smallpox outbreak in the early 19th century.

Europe was ravaged for decades by the highly contagious disease, which causes fever and a dreadful skin rash, and can lead to death.

Sweden lost 300,000 lives between 1750 and 1800 before the world’s first smallpox vaccine became widespread.

The Nordic nation introduced vaccines in 1816, and by the end of that century had become the first country to eradicate the disease.

The British government followed suit in 1853 with the “United Kingdom Vaccination Act”, which required parents to vaccinate children against smallpox within their first three months or be fined.

Across the Channel, French soldiers fighting the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 suffered heavy losses due to smallpox and were eventually defeated by their better-vaccinated opponents.

But parliamentary debate would still take decades for France to decide whether to make smallpox jabs compulsory for children, the country’s first such law in 1902.

In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, a major change in public opinion caused the government to back down and pass a new law in 1898 that allowed people to refuse jabs for moral reasons.

Protests against jabs, which were not as consistently safe or effective as today’s vaccines, began decades ago as soon as the UK mandate came into force.

The government eventually relented after thousands of parents were prosecuted for refusing the jab as part of a peaceful but hugely popular movement in the city of Leicester.

“By the time France chose to introduce vaccination in the early 20th century, England had abandoned the idea and never went back,” Moulin told AFP.

Today, Sweden and the United Kingdom have some of the lowest vaccine requirements in Europe.