It can’t be expected that any vaccination promotion campaign would be able affect the wider consciousness of a nation with a very low high education rate, and a significant number of those who trust the tabloids more than they trust medical professionals.

Dr Nemanja Radojevic

As the Convention on Human Rights is clear, imposing compulsory vaccination is not a topic open to interpretation, nor can it be, at least not explicitly. Even the way things are at the moment, it’s difficult to handle the various quasi-protectors of allegedly endangered categories, rights and the like. But remembering the victory of the pro-vaccination policy in the case against the Czech state, when the European Court of Human Rights found no violation of the law in banning the enrolment of an unvaccinated child in kindergarten, our authorities must finally muster the courage (if therey have any) for a full and the comprehensive application of COVID passes.

Living our miserable reality at the very back of everything civilized, and rushing towards the front in everything that is backward, it seems that the legal-medical landing for this situation is becoming more and more realistic – COVID passes for any freer form of life in the near future. And COVID passes are actually mandatory vaccination in disguise. But in order to take that path, apart from the fact that the government must be brave and responsible, it must not be populist – because one cannot count on a collective awareness of social responsibility when we are essentially very selfish people.

So, a “NO” to mandatory vaccination, but COVID passes for entering public transport, shops, malls, markets, public institutions, sports and cultural events, etc., and even for work in the public sector and public administration – are actually a very strong “YES” in curbing the current fire, predominantly caused by a lack of application of epidemiological measures and lukewarm levels of vaccinated individuals.

It can’t be expected that any vaccination promotion campaign would be able affect the wider consciousness of a nation with a very low high education rate, and a significant number of those who trust the tabloids more than they trust medical professionals, and who show no ability of critical thinking.  The current more or less than 40 percent of the vaccinated adult population is another indicator of our lag behind the developed world, which is once again proving to be very costly in this war against Covid.

 

Nemanja Radojevic, forensic medicine specialist, was a member of the Crisis Medical Team in the fight against the coronavirus during the first wave of the epidemic