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Rome — Last month, 59-year-old real estate agent and amateur artist Letizia Perna, who lives in a seaside town in Tuscany, died of COVID-19. Her one mother was healthy but unvaccinated and she refused both medication and intubation.
Perna was one of an increasing number of vaccine skeptics who said doctors were refusing life-saving treatments because of their idealistic beliefs. According to the president of SIAARTI, the Italian Intensivist Association, about half of unvaccinated patients who arrive in the intensive care unit refuse treatment, resulting in a mortality rate of almost 100%.
Alberto Giannini, an anesthesiologist and association spokesman, said medical staff would not give up on them, but some of the population would probably not change their minds. I’m afraid of 5G. If they say night is day, how do you start to persuade them? ”
Faced with a surge in infections, lockdown fatigue, and the need to protect the economic recovery while protecting the healthcare system, hard-liners as the government bends its muscles to convince those who are hesitant about the rest of the vaccine. There is increasing concern about the increase in radicalization among.
Some have given up on persuasion and forced them in the form of mandatory vaccines, raising fundamental questions about whether the restrictions on civil liberties they entail are acceptable in democracy. At the same time, the establishment of the minority Refusenik encourages reflection on the social risks of polarizing the minority.
Italy imposes some of the strictest rules, such as mandatory vaccines for people over the age of 50, and human rights group Amnesty International urges Rome to ensure that its policies are not proportional and discriminatory. doing.
The European government is testing an alternative approach. Vaccination is mandatory for all adults in Austria. France has stopped the mandatory shortage of jabs, but President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to “anger” those who are not jabs by limiting their social rights. Germany imposes vaccine obligations on parliamentary free votes amid concerns about privacy and constitutional rights.
Decisive action
As the first Western nation to be attacked by COVID-19, and Italy, which boasts the highest death toll in the European Union, there is every reason to act decisively.
The greedy Omicron variant of coronavirus, which was discovered only in November and is now the predominant strain in the world, reached 180,000 on Tuesday, killing about 500.
Patients with COVID-19 occupy one-third to half of the beds in many areas and one in four intensive care units in the worst affected areas. In Palermo this month, we had to open two field hospitals for the first time. National vaccination levels are 80%, above the EU average, but vaccination rates are sparse and a quarter of people in hesitant areas are not vaccinated.
Italy led the responsibility for vaccination and became the first country in Europe to order vaccines from health care workers and impose a health pass on all workers. Unvaccinated people are banned from public transport, unnecessary shops and businesses, but people over the age of 50 will be fined if they are not vaccinated.
Beppegrillro, founder of the 5-star movement flirting in the Antibacs position in the past, said the measure “evoked the Orwell scene.” And Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the opposition Italian Brothers of Italy, accused the mission of “national blackmail.”
Prime Minister Mario Draghi explained Italy’s willingness, saying that the emergence of new variants like Delta indicates the need for higher levels of vaccination. He called the vaccine pass a “tool of freedom” and allowed the blockade to end.
Anti-vaccines often argue that the vaccine is ineffective, given that vaccination can still catch COVID and infect others. However, according to Gaetano Azality, a professor of constitution at the University of Sapienza in Rome, vaccines may not be 100% effective, but as long as hospitalization is reduced, general vaccine obligations can be justified.
Azarati is aware of the problem when missions distinguish between generations. “It’s weak to have a generational standard,” he said, challenging Draghi’s claim that Italy’s requirements for vaccination over the age of 50 are not the result of a political compromise, but are based on it. .. About science.
Root cause
Human rights and constitutional experts say that vaccination mandates can generally be justified for the public good, for example to protect medical services.
Orsolya Reich, Senior Advocacy Officer of the Associated State of European NGOs, said mandates must meet four key conditions. They need to be appropriate and provide a safe and effective way to achieve that goal. They should try not to violate people’s rights as much as possible. And they should be proportional.
“So if the vaccine was for a cold [a mandate] The problems that colds bring to society aren’t important enough and probably won’t be justified, “Reich said.
Experts admit that mandatory vaccines do not address the root causes of skepticism, such as lack of trust and education.
Jeremy K. Ward, a sociologist and researcher at the French National Institute of Health, says that making restaurants and events more difficult to access without vaccination is effective in combating complacency and indecision. However, it does not reduce the hesitation of the vaccine itself. INSERM).
“The real question the government needs to ask itself is how important it is to vaccinate the government,” he said. According to Ward, the answer depends on the age profile of the unvaccinated person. In some countries, those at highest risk of severe illness may need to be targeted for booster immunization rather than focusing on catching young vaccine skeptics. “There is one thing that is certain. Some people are not convinced.”
For human rights experts Reich, vaccination mandates are justified if some individuals are immobile but help avoid the collapse of the healthcare system. Is it a legitimate purpose? ”
“No vaccine is 100% effective,” agreed doctor Giannini. “But it’s still important. As a result, polio has been eradicated.”
Radicalization risk
Governments also need to weigh the imminent threat to the health system and the risks of social disruption. Some experts are worried that the dullest tools (mandatory) risk further alienating people who already have low confidence in public health agencies. “That’s why it’s so important to make sure it’s needed,” Ward said.
In Italy, isolated anti-bakers live in parallel societies, served by alternative transportation and shops operated by the online network of sympathizers. Hundreds of parents living in the northeastern part of Alto Adige, known to German-speaking people as Südtirol, support their children’s state-owned schools in favor of alternative parent-led schools without homeschooling, masks or vaccines. Withdrawn from.
Such divisions endanger social contracts and can lead to anxiety. The far-right neo-Nazis and the far-left anarchist group have already used their dissatisfaction to try to organize protests. In Italy, a user of Telegram, an encrypted chat app, was arrested on suspicion of plotting against Draghi.
According to Luigi Koro, chairman of the CMP Citizenship Group in Venice and a prominent campaigner against vaccination, there is a risk that despair can lead to violence. The coronavirus claims that coercion of vaccination actually contributes to the spread of COVID, as people deliberately try to infect to get an exemption from jabs.
“People ask who has the virus and allow them to go home. They don’t consider it so bad,” he told POLITICO.
Ashleigh Furlong contributed to the report.
This article is part of PoliticoPremium Policy Services: Professional Healthcare. From drug prices, EMAs, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, etc., our professional journalists are always aware of the topics that drive the healthcare policy agenda. Email [email protected] Free trial.
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