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German Ethics Council advisor wants mandatory Covid jabs for teachers

Wolfram Henn, a human geneticist who sits on the German Ethics Council, is calling on the government to make Covid vaccination compulsory for teachers and day-care workers.

Published: 12 July 2021 13:22 CEST
German Ethics Council advisor wants mandatory Covid jabs for teachers
A school pupil puts his hand up in class at the Fritz Carsen School in the Berlin district of Britz. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

“Anyone who chooses of their own free will to work with vulnerable people takes on a special professional responsibility,” he told regional paper Rheinische Post. 

“We need mandatory vaccination for personnel in schools and nurseries.”

At present, the EU-approved vaccines are only permitted for over-12s. While adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 are able to get a jab, however, Germany’s Standing Vaccines Commission has not yet issued a firm recommendation that they do so – unless they have a pre-existing condition that might make them particularly vulnerable to Covid. 

According to Henn, teachers and nursery workers have an obligation to protect the children they work with – especially those under 12.

Although children are considered to have a fairly low risk of getting seriously ill from Covid, they can still bring home the virus to their families, he added.

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On Sunday, French media sources reported that the country’s public health advisor was calling on the government to introduce mandatory vaccination for medical professionals. President Macron is expected to make an announcement on this on Monday evening.

Speaking to Rheinische Post, Henn said that people who have professional contact with other vulnerable groups should also have a compulsory jab. 

The move would particularly protect those who are undergoing intense courses of treatment for diseases such as cancer, or who are otherwise unable to get a vaccine due to their weakened immune system, he said.

First jabs sink to February levels

With almost 60 percent of the German population having received at least one shot, the vaccination drive continues to drag it feet.

On Monday, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) tweeted to say that physicians had administered “as few first doses… as in February,” when Germany was struggling to gets its inoculation campaign off the ground. 

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why Covid vaccine demand is dropping in Germany

“Unlike February, we now have enough vaccines,” Spahn added. “The fact remains: please get vaccinated!”

According to the governmental vaccination tracker Impfdashboard.de, just over 221,000 people in Germany received a jab on Sunday.

That’s around a sixth of the daily jabs that Germany was achieving when the campaign finally picked up pace in May. 

READ ALSO: Germany vaccinates record number of people in one day

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COVID-19 VACCINES

Italy’s constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges on Thursday dismissed legal challenges to Italy's vaccine mandate as "inadmissible” and “unfounded”, as 1.9 million people face fines for refusing the jab.

Published: 2 December 2022 12:11 CET
Italy's constitutional court upholds Covid vaccine mandate as fines kick in

Judges were asked this week to determine whether or not vaccine mandates introduced by the previous government during the pandemic – which applied to healthcare and school staff as well as over-50s – breached the fundamental rights set out by Italy’s constitution.

Italy became the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for healthcare workers to be vaccinated, ruling in 2021 that they must have the jab or be transferred to other roles or suspended without pay.

The Constitutional Court upheld the law in a ruling published on Thursday, saying it considered the government’s requirement for healthcare personnel to be vaccinated during the pandemic period neither unreasonable nor disproportionate.

Judges ruled other questions around the issue as inadmissible “for procedural reasons”, according to a court statement published on Thursday.

This was the first time the Italian Constitutional Court had ruled on the issue, after several regional courts previously dismissed challenges to the vaccine obligation on constitutional grounds.

A patient being administered a Covid jab.

Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP

One Lazio regional administrative court ruled in March 2022 that the question of constitutional compatibility was “manifestly unfounded”.

Such appeals usually centre on the question of whether the vaccine requirement can be justified in order to protect the ‘right to health’ as enshrined in the Italian Constitution.

READ ALSO: Italy allows suspended anti-vax doctors to return to work

Meanwhile, fines kicked in from Thursday, December 1st, for almost two million people in Italy who were required to get vaccinated under the mandate but refused.

This includes teachers, law enforcement and healthcare workers, and the over 50s, who face fines of 100 euros each under rules introduced in 2021.

Thursday was the deadline to justify non-compliance with the vaccination mandate due to health reasons, such as having contracted Covid during that period.

Italy’s health minister on Friday however appeared to suggest that the new government may choose not to enforce the fines.

“It could cost more for the state to collect the fines” than the resulting income, Health Minister Orazio Schillaci told Radio Rai 1.

He went on to say that it was a matter for the Economy and Finance Ministry, but suggested that the government was drawing up an amendment to the existing law.

READ ALSO: Covid vaccines halved Italy’s death toll, study finds

The League, one of the parties which comprises the new hard-right government, is pushing for fines for over-50s to be postponed until June 30th 2023.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had promised a clear break with her predecessor’s health policies, after her Brothers of Italy party railed against the way Mario Draghi’s government handled the pandemic in 2021 when it was in opposition.

At the end of October, shortly after taking office, the new government allowed doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to return to work earlier than planned after being suspended for refusing the Covid vaccine.

There has been uncertainty about the new government’s stance after the deputy health minister in November cast doubt on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, saying he was “not for or against” vaccination.

Italy’s health ministry continues to advise people in at-risk groups to get a booster jab this winter, and this week stressed in social media posts that vaccination against Covid-19 and seasonal flu remained “the most effective way to protect ourselves and our loved ones, especially the elderly and frail”.

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