The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) determined on Thursday that obligatory vaccinations may be needed in democratic societies, according to reports.
The ECHR, located in Strasbourg, France, was ruling on a case involving children and mandatory vaccinations for school. Outside observers saw the ruling as having clear implications for any future fight over COVID-19 shots. The AFP reported it is the first time the court ruled on compulsory vaccinations.
Nicolas Hervieu, a legal expert who specializes in the ECHR, told the AFP that the ruling supports the “possibility of a compulsory vaccination under conditions of the current COVID-19 epidemic.”
The court case involved parents in the Czech Republic who refused to comply with the country’s vaccine guidelines for their children. They claimed mandatory vaccinations went against their right to respect for private life.
The vaccines were for mumps, hepatitis B, and whooping cough. The cases were filed years before the COVID-19.
Sixteen of the court’s 17 judges ruled the vaccines protect the individual receiving the shot as well as the public, Euronews reported. The report pointed out that the court’s ruling said, “Vaccination protects both those who receive it and those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and are therefore relying on herd immunity for protection against serious contagious diseases.”
TRENDPOST: It is just a matter of time before COVID-19 vaccinations will be a prerequisite for children to attend school. But there are critics.
Vinay Prasad is a hematologist-oncologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He wrote in STAT, an American health-oriented news website, that between March and October 2020, among those between the ages of five and 14, the risk of dying of Covid-19 in the U.S. was 1 in 1,000,000. For young adults aged 15 to 24, the risk of dying from Covid was 9.9 in 1,000,000.
Dr. Prasad wrote, “Assume the same 95% relative risk reduction seen in studies of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in adults. The vaccine might save one life for every 1 million kids who get it.”
He concluded that vaccinations “may be a tough sell to children and parents simply because the absolute benefit to kids is very small given the low absolute risk of developing severe Covid-19 or dying from it.”
