WHO official: Europe should consider making jabs compulsory

EUROPE should consider mandatory vaccination, a World Health Organisation official said yesterday.

Robb Butler, executive director of the European regional director’s office, said making jabs compulsory “can, but does not always, increase uptake” and was worth considering in light of the fourth wave surging across the Continent.

The WHO said that Europe was “once again the epicentre” of Covid, with 60 per cent of the world’s cases and deaths in the past week. Only 57 per cent are fully vaccinated, compared with 68 per cent of people in Britain.

“We believe it’s time to have that conversation from both an individual and a population-based perspective. It’s a healthy debate to have,” Mr Butler said.

He acknowledged there were “lessons of history where mandates have come at the expense of trust”.

Other experts also voiced caution. Antony Costello, the former WHO director and professor of global health at University College London, warned that mandating shots would “repel a lot of people who lack trust in government and vaccines” and could prompt further riots, after violent protests in a number of EU countries at the weekend.

He and Mr Butler both said that maskwearing and other measures – such as working from home and improved ventilation – could help cut case numbers.

“We don’t want lockdowns or mandatory vaccines,” Prof Costello said.

Last week Austria became the first country in Europe to reintroduce lockdown and make vaccination mandatory, with fines of up to £3,000 for refusing a jab. The ruling becomes law in February. Germany has also indicated that it may consider mandatory vaccination.

Slovakia went back into lockdown for two weeks at midnight last night, and the Netherlands – which has higher case rates than ever before – is also set to bring in measures tomorrow.

Italy yesterday announced the unvaccinated will be banned from venues such as restaurants and cinemas and from Dec 15, mandatory vaccines will be extended to those working in schools, police and the military.

For other diseases, full mandates are rarer, though not uncommon, in Europe and globally. In France, children require certificates proving they have had routine childhood immunisations when they enrol in school.

Dr Peter English, former editor of the journal Vaccines in Practice, said the detail of what “mandatory vaccination” meant, and making sure it did not exclude people unfairly, was complicated. “It is hard to enforce. How do you, in practice, vaccinate somebody who refuses consent?” he said.

The Government has rejected making vaccines mandatory, other than for health and care workers.

Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, said: “It has never even been in our plan B to have mandatory vaccines and it still isn’t.”