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Getting vaccinated is a civic and solidarity obligation

2021-09-01T07:44:59.311Z


There are strong arguments for demanding immunization of certain groups due to the nature of their work; the rights of deniers are not absolute and their lack of solidarity has consequences


Eulogia Merle

When we talk about measures such as vaccination, curfew or covid passport, we must be aware that these decisions are adopted with health criteria that are supported by studies and analyzes by scientists.

All this in the context of a pandemic whose very serious consequences for public health need not be highlighted.

In the midst of debate throughout Europe about the need to be vaccinated as an antidote to the spread of the pandemic, I have the impression that there has been a distortion of the true core of the issue.

I understand that no government has ever thought of imposing forced vaccination that could only be carried out in totalitarian regimes that exercise absolute control over their citizens by injecting them, violently, despite their opposition.

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In democratic societies, the measure would collide head-on with the constitutions and with all international texts on the protection of human rights.

Having ruled out forced vaccination, the debate on compulsory vaccination is open and must be approached by governments and health authorities with ethical, civic and legal support.

Getting vaccinated seems to me an elementary obligation, although it cannot be imperatively born from a law that establishes it in a general way.

Even in exceptional situations, it can collide with the individual rights of people who refuse to be vaccinated no matter how implausible, bizarre and unacceptable their arguments may be in the face of scientific evidence.

At stake are the right to self-determination of people, the free development of their personality and the privacy of their health data, compared to the general health of all their fellow citizens, for whom there is a certain and evident danger of transmission of the disease. virus. However, you cannot give fuel to esoteric and absurd anti-vaccine pretexts such as those that claim that chips are injected, alter our genetic map or maintain that the virus is transmitted by electromagnetic waves. Nor are they acceptable, as a pretext, the finding of some counterproductive side effects that have been detected, as happens in practically all the medicines we take on a daily basis. Vaccination has been shown to be an antidote with proven efficacy.

Denialist citizens have to face the consequences that may arise from their unsupportive attitude because it is evident that their rights are not absolute and must be subordinated to the general welfare. Faced with the devastating effects of the pandemic (more than 84,000 deaths in Spain at the time of writing these lines), it is not possible to wield absolute rights to behave in an unsupportive and irrational manner. Society cannot bear these attitudes helplessly. The public powers, by constitutional imperative, have the mission of organizing and protecting public health through preventive measures and the necessary benefits and services. The Constitution allows for certain precautions to be established to prevent those who refuse to be vaccinated from constituting a serious danger to the community.

In France, the requirement of a so-called covid passport (vaccination certificate) has been strongly endorsed by the Constitutional Council and its arguments are valid for similar situations such as that experienced in Spain. The extension of its effects can occur in several directions: social, labor and cultural. They have considered compulsory vaccination of many professions that work in contact with the public, such as health workers, waiters or firefighters, as constitutional, with the criticized exception of the police. It is true that the decision has aroused rejection in some sectors and has been manifested in demonstrations on public roads. The number of protesters and the arguments used seem irrelevant and even demagogic to me,like those that equate it with the yellow star that the Nazis sewed on the clothes of the Jews. The Constitutional Council considers the covid passport as a measure that allows a “balanced conciliation” between individual freedoms and the protection of health.

Faced with the evidence of the widespread dangers that occur in general public health due to not having achieved 100% vaccination, deniers must be aware that they are failing to carry out their civic, ethical and even legal duties. There are mandatory moral obligations that in exceptional situations can produce legitimate reactions that limit any of your rights.

The restriction of individual rights such as the free determination of the development of their personality, their privacy regarding their health data and, in these cases, their right to work or access to places open to the public is authorized by all international texts of the human rights. The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms allows, as a limiting clause of rights, all those measures that in a democratic society are necessary for the protection and defense of health.

Some specialists in the health sciences, such as Dawson and Jennings, consider that solidarity is also a feeling: "The affective recognition of human interdependencies", including the interdependencies between the health states of individuals. Solidarity, they claim, "provides reasonable motivation for ethical conduct." In a different field, such as that of the organization of the health system, a question is asked: what does the solidarity of each one of us require to contribute to the health of others? This question can be transferred to the glassy issue of mandatory vaccination.

I fully share the core of the arguments of the French Constitutional Council; Refusal to be vaccinated can affect labor rights or access to certain public places. Our Workers' Statute establishes the duty to comply with the specific obligations of their job, in accordance with the rules of good faith and diligence. By regulating non-discrimination in labor relations, it does not include or consider as such the possible exceptional measures that may be adopted in a pandemic situation to avoid the risks of transmitting infectious diseases.

The Ethics and Data Protection group of the Spanish Epidemiology Society (SEE) has ruled that “in public health we move by the principle of harm to third parties formulated by the Scottish philosopher Stuart Mill: we must always respect the freedom of individuals and when it does not harm third parties ”. The State has the obligation to adopt measures to guarantee total immunization against the main infectious diseases.

Having ruled out the possibility of imposing compulsory vaccination, I believe that there are solid ethical and legal foundations (Labor Risks Law) to demand the vaccination of some groups due to the specific nature of their work. I am referring, in the first place, to workers in geriatric residences, those who provide a public service (health workers, police officers, firefighters, drivers and transport crews) and those others who, in a singular way, can be justified. In these cases, the general principle of voluntariness in vaccination can be replaced by that of compulsory nature. Individual rights are not affected and the ethical and social values ​​of the community are reinforced. The search for a “balanced conciliation” underpins and strengthens our democratic health.

José Antonio Martín Pallín

is a lawyer and Spanish commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva. He has been a prosecutor and magistrate of the Supreme Court.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-01

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