WHO against making coronavirus vaccine mandatory
- Such moves have backfired and caused greater opposition in the past, the UN health agency warns
- WHO chief lays out guidelines for people who should have priority to get inoculated
The World Health Organization said Monday that persuading people on the merits of a Covid-19 vaccine would be far more effective than trying to make the jabs mandatory.
The WHO said it would be down to individual countries as to how they want to conduct their vaccination campaigns against the coronavirus pandemic.
But the UN health agency insisted making it mandatory to get immunised against the disease would be the wrong road to take, adding there were examples in the past of mandating vaccines use only to see it backfire with greater opposition to them.
“I don’t think that mandates are the direction to go in here, especially for these vaccines,” Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO’s immunisation department, told a virtual news conference. “It is a much better position to actually encourage and facilitate the vaccination without those kinds of requirements. I don’t think we envision any countries creating a mandate for vaccination.”
O’Brien said there may be certain hospital professions in which being vaccinated might be required or highly recommended for staff and patient safety.