Current understandings of the impact of mandatory vaccination laws in Europe

Improved Temporal Trends of Vaccination Coverage Rates in Childhood after the Mandatory Vaccination Act, Italy 2014–2019

“…The Ministry of Health replied to many letters from citizens and local health authorities by giving answers to specific requests, while recommending to the vaccination sites to extend the opening hours of vaccination centers. Recent reviews [10,19,20] have assessed national mandatory vaccination policies and consequent health, political and ethical aspects. Globally, 105 countries (of which 23 are in Europe) out of 193 have a nationwide mandatory vaccination policy and 62 countries impose parental, educational and/or financial penalties against not complying individuals, with several level of severity.…”

“…Besides, the law guarantees equal access to the Italian vaccination services for infants and children, avoiding discriminations by region or country of origin. However, the social impact of mandatory vaccination policies remains controversial [9,10]. As the relationship between mandatory immunization policy and VC levels is still unproven in Italy [11,12], we aimed to analyze the national VC trends for the mandatory vaccinations, unravelling possible contributing factors.…”

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Children and Adolescents—A Joint Statement of the European Academy of Paediatrics and the European Confederation for Primary Care Paediatricians

“…In many European countries, vaccination against other infectious diseases has been compulsory for many years, which appears to impact vaccination coverage significantly (59). Such restrictions are often questioned, and there are some indications that the counseling encouraging voluntary vaccination and information campaigns are more effective in the longer term (60,61). Nevertheless, the global threat of the COVID-19 pandemic may require more restrictive management, and this decision should remain with the national authorities.…”

Mass Immunization and Vaccine Hesitancy in Children and Their Families: A Long and Winding Road Ahead to Address without a Second Thought

“…Compulsory vaccination has proved to play a primary role to counteract the progressive decrease in vaccination coverage rates registered in the last decades [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. However, as observed by D’Errico et al, the current global policy trend in developed countries is to progressively abandon this strategy, strongly opposed by the so-called “no-vax” groups, who greatly benefit from the ease of content dissemination on new social media [ 14 ].…”

“…Because of the growing disbelief and skepticism spreading through parents/guardians regarding infant and children vaccination, new strategies aimed at disseminating targeted correct information, together with more efficient programs to report potential adverse events following immunization and, not less important, the formulation of effective “informed refusal” (as suggested by the Latvian experience) are strongly required [ 13 , 14 , 16 ].…”