A prominent bioethicist has suggested that health authorities should consider expanding vaccine mandates to cover illnesses other than COVID-19 such as measles and influenza.
The comments were made by Christiane Druml, lawyer and chair of the Austrian federal Bioethics Commission.
During an interview, Druml asserted, “The Covid-19 vaccination requirement could be the starting signal for a new attempt to better protect people against unnecessary diseases such as measles, whooping cough or influenza – also by means of vaccination requirements.”
The term “vaccination requirements” is a watered down way of saying ‘vaccination mandates’.
The bioethicist, who is also UNESCO Chair for Bioethics at the Medical University of Vienna, pointed to the development of combination influenza and COVID-19 vaccines as another sign that flu jabs could eventually become compulsory in some countries.
“There is definitely a social interest in avoiding unnecessary flu outbreaks,” she said.
Druml argued that some vaccinations, such as the measles jab, are already compulsory for children in Germany to be allowed to attend school, and should therefore be extended.
The lawyer has previously expressed support for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, but for targeted groups such as people over 55 and for staff who work in hospitals, retirement homes and schools.
From this week, Austria will become the first European country to make the coronavirus vaccine mandatory for adults.
Those who continue to refuse to take it will face fines of up to 3,600 euros ($4,100) from March onwards.
As we previously highlighted, the government is hiring people to “hunt down vaccine refusers” and process their punishments through the legal system.
