European countries opt for mandatory vaccination while experts believe that COVID-19 may be losing strength

Several European countries have already chosen to implement compulsory vaccination for social and leisure activities as a way to fight against the omicron variant, which has triggered infections and stressed some economic sectors due to the increase in sick leave.

However, at the same time, the main epidemiological advisor to the US Government, Anthony Fauci, expressed his hope in Davos on Monday that the coronavirus will lose its lethality and ability to cause serious cases; although, like other experts who intervened in the debate, he asked the world to remain vigilant.

An “endemic” coronavirus, which no longer paralyzes societies, is possible, but “this will only happen if new variants do not appear that elude the immunity of previous strains,” Fauci stressed in a virtual debate held by the Davos Forum on the evolution of the pandemic.

For its part, among the countries that have taken strong measures to curb the disease is France. The French Government has preferred to avoid the obligation to be vaccinated, but instead imposes a disputed vaccination certificate that will be necessary for many activities of social life from the end of this week, once a new law definitively adopted by the Parliament on Sunday.

With this law, it will be necessary to show that you have the complete vaccination schedule (which includes the booster dose seven months after the first two injections) to go to a bar, a restaurant, the cinema, a show or a stadium, but also to use long-distance public transport (buses, trains, planes or boats).

Another is Italy, one of the European countries with the strictest measures in terms of vaccination. The nation introduced the obligation for those over 50 years of age since last January 7, a measure that was agreed with difficulties among the different political forces that support the Government of Mario Draghi.

In addition, since January 10, the complete guideline or having overcome the disease is requested to access practically all activities, from leisure to means of transport, including the metro and buses, while in the workplace those under 50 years of age they do not yet have to be vaccinated to go to work, except for categories such as law enforcement, school personnel and health workers.

In Germany, a bill by the Government of Olaf Scholz was approved in December that imposes the mandatory vaccine in sensitive labor sectors, such as geriatrics or health. It proposed long deadlines until the measure becomes effective, until March, in view of the precise period to have the complete guideline.

In parallel, Scholz insists on the need to implement the compulsory vaccine in a general way. However, his Government has not yet presented the corresponding bill.

In Greece, around 300,000 Greeks over the age of 60 will be forced to pay a fine of 50 euros for not getting vaccinated or making an appointment to do so, since this Monday the deadline that the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis had given in November to this age group to be inoculated against the coronavirus.

The fine will only be 50 euros for January, since the measure came into force in the middle of the month, but from February those over 60 who continue without taking the injection will pay a fine of 100 euros for each month they continue without do it.

In the case of Austria, it was the first country in Europe to announce a compulsory vaccination for everyone over 18 years of age, which will begin to apply from February 1, with the threat of a maximum fine of 3,600 euros per year.

The measure, announced on November 19, has generated several massive protests since then, and has been supported by four of the five formations with parliamentary representation, all except the extreme right.

In the Czech Republic, compulsory vaccination of certain public employees, such as health workers, soldiers, social workers and police officers, as well as those over 60 years of age, who should receive the serum before February 28, was decreed.

This measure, decreed in December by the previous government of populists and social democrats, will be reviewed in February, when the approval of a non-mandatory vaccination plan “similar to that of the flu” is expected, advanced the new head of Health, Vlastimil Válek.

COVID-19 will not be eradicated

Meanwhile, Fauci, also the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ruled out the possibility that COVID-19 will be totally eradicated, “something that in the history of infections has only happened once. with smallpox.”

Instead, Fauci contemplated as a possible scenario, although not yet certain, that the coronavirus could be “controlled” to the extent that it does not produce great alterations in social life, as occurs with seasonal waves of flu and other respiratory illnesses.

Annelies Wilder-Smith, professor of emerging communicable diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, agreed that it is too early to lower the level of COVID-19 from “pandemic” to “endemic”.

“It is very likely that new variants of the coronavirus will emerge, the question is whether they will be more or less dangerous,” he said in the session dedicated to the pandemic at the Davos Forum, which is holding conferences in virtual format this week due to the current wave of infections. linked to the omicron variant.

“Based on the evolutionary advantages of a virus, it is most likely to be attenuated and associated with less severe cases (…), since it is in its best interest to be more contagious without causing the death of the host organism,” explained the expert.

Despite this, “the world must be prepared for the worst possible scenario, even if it is not the most probable”, in the sense that a new highly contagious and highly lethal variant may emerge. (I)