Greece’s Bioethics Commission: “Compulsory Vaccination” only “a last resort”

Greece’s National Bioethics Committee made recommendations on the issue of compulsory vaccination at the request of the Prime Minister. In its report, the Commission proposes a “scalable initiative” approach on the part of the State and characterizes the provision for “compulsory vaccination” as the “last resort” under certain conditions and only for the personnel of public and private health units, as well as for the staff of care units for vulnerable groups.

In particular, the Commission recommends vaccination information and awareness campaigns tailored to each professional group, and advocates the adoption of incentive / discouragement measures, and see the “compulsory vaccination” only as a last resort, under certain conditions and for specific professional groups.

Regarding the measures to encourage / discourage vaccination, the Commission states: “They could be designed by the State in cooperation with the administration of health units, such as e.g. facilitation of vaccination appointments, flexibility of working hours on vaccination days, priority in the selection of days-off or mandatory use of a double mask and personal protective equipment.

According to Committee’s statement, the Prime Minister’s request was referring to the possibility of providing compulsory vaccination of doctors and nursing staff, as well as all those who staff health structures (public and private sector) or care structures of vulnerable groups (elderly, people with chronic diseases or with a disability).

The Commission proposes a “scalable initiative” approach on the part of the State, with three stages:

a) Targeted information and awareness campaigns for voluntary vaccination, adapted to each professional group (doctors, nurses, laboratories, care staff, etc.), which are based on scientific data that are constantly updated, provided that prior understanding and of general perceptions.

b) encouraging measures as state above

c) mandatory provision as a last resort, which should have a specific time horizon and be implemented only if the previous measures do not lead to a significant increase in the vaccination rate. The exact implementation of such a measure must be determined on the basis of labor or public law, on the other hand requires any consequences in the division of tasks and staffing of structures in case of non-compliance, to avoid underfunding of the latter or the workload of other employees .

The Commission notes that the above recommendation applies only to the specific occupational groups of staff in public and private health units, as well as to staff in vulnerable groups.