fbpx Compulsory vaccination and rates of coverage immunisation in Europe | Science in the net

Compulsory vaccination and rates of coverage immunisation in Europe

Primary tabs

di ASSET Project
Pubblicato il 10/09/2016Tempo di lettura: 2 mins
Global Health
Salute

Article published on the ASSET website

High rates of vaccination coverage in childhood are main indicators for public health. However, reaching and maintaining such a target is not always an easy task for public health institutions, and the spread of vaccine refusal and hesitancy is making this even harder.

Enforcing mandatory vaccinations is one of the strategies that some countries adopted and others are considering in order to face this issue. Depending on local legislations, legal consequences for those who do not accept the uptake can be very different, ranging from pecuniary penalties to hurdles to attend public schools. In some cases, parents may even incur penal consequences, as it recently happened in France, were two parents refusing to vaccinate their children risked a jail sentence. Nevertheless, the efficacy of such an approach has been questioned.

ASSET performed an analysis on the issue, comparing coverage rates of immunisation against polio (Pol3), measles (MCV1) and pertussis containing vaccines (DTP3)* in European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries, where, according to different policies, these vaccinations are either mandatory or recommended.

This comparison cannot confirm any relationship between mandatory vaccination and rates of childhood immunization in the EU/EEA countries.

 

* In some countries, such as Italy, vaccination against pertussis is highly recommended but not compulsory, while those against diphteria and tetanus on the contrary are, but the three are usually administered in one single shot.


Scienza in rete è un giornale senza pubblicità e aperto a tutti per garantire l’indipendenza dell’informazione e il diritto universale alla cittadinanza scientifica. Contribuisci a dar voce alla ricerca sostenendo Scienza in rete. In questo modo, potrai entrare a far parte della nostra comunità e condividere il nostro percorso. Clicca sul pulsante e scegli liberamente quanto donare! Anche una piccola somma è importante. Se vuoi fare una donazione ricorrente, ci consenti di programmare meglio il nostro lavoro e resti comunque libero di interromperla quando credi.


  • 9670 reads

prossimo articolo

Responsibility for the damages caused by climate change and attribution science

di Stefano Nespor
Pubblicato il 02/10/2023

Disputes and legal actions concerning climate change are on the rise, as are those aimed at obtaining compensation for damages caused by specific atmospheric events from parties believed to be responsible. This is a result of the findings of attribution science, a discipline aimed at clarifying the causal relationship between the occurrence of extreme weather events and climate change.

Image credits: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Climatology

In an article from ten years ago, addressing the issue of climate litigations, the legal disputes concerning climate change, the author noted that most of them were brought against governments to introduce limits or controls on greenhouse gas emitting activities or against companies involved in their production (especially oil multinationals) to comply with existing regulations.