Is Mandatory Vaccination in Population over 60 Adequate to Control the COVID-19 Pandemic in E.U.?

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy, which potentially leads to the refusal or delayed acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, is considered a key driver of the increasing death toll from the pandemic in the EU. The European Commission and several member states’ governments are either planning or have already directly or indirectly announced mandatory vaccination for individuals aged over 60, the group which has repeatedly proved to be the most vulnerable. In this paper, an assessment of this strategy’s benefits is attempted by deriving a metric for the potential gains of vaccination mandates that can be used to compare EU member states. This is completed by examining the reduction in Standard Expected Years of Life Lost (SEYLL) per person for the EU population over 60 as a function of the member states’ vaccination percentage in these ages. The publicly available data and results of the second iteration of the SHARE COVID-19 survey on the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, conducted during the summer of 2021, are used as inputs.

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“…The present work shows the great importance of vaccination not only to prevent hospitalization of infected people, but also to reduce deaths in agreement with published evidences (Machado et al 2022, Hulíková Tesárková and Dzúrová 2022, Rachaniotis et al 2022: the maximum number of deaths and years of life lost occurs during the period without mandatory vaccination.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Primary Care Physicians towards COVID-19 in Greece: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The issue of COVID-19 vaccination nevertheless remains a controversial subject for the public, and among physicians [ 37 , 39 , 40 ]. As previously mentioned, after vaccine rollout, several countries implemented some form of vaccine incentive, either as a green pass, or as a fine for non-vaccinated individuals [ 28 , 29 ]. A study in the elderly population in southern Italy showed that after the green pass adoption, fewer people supported the vaccine mandate [ 29 ].…”

“…Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, vaccine hesitancy has been a reason for public discussion and social reactions for many countries globally and especially across Europe [ 27 ]. Therefore, many European countries made decisions about vaccine incentives for compliant groups, in the form of green passes, or penalties for non-compliant ones, such as fines for non-vaccination [ 28 ]. This sparked deviating opinions, with many people rejecting the option of mandatory vaccination, regardless of their vaccination status [ 29 ].…”

Evaluating the COVID-19 Containment Protocol in Greek Universities for the Academic Year 2021–2022

“…Finally, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic Omicron infection was reduced, even in the highly vaccinated department’s population. Current vaccines are protecting against severe illness, hospitalization, and death [ 3 ], but Omicron transmission is clearly possible among both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, partially evading immunity acquired from prior COVID-19 infection and from a two or three dose mRNA vaccine regimen [ 15 ]. This was observed in the department, especially after the advent of Omicron variant BA.5.…”

“…Up to December 2020, due to the absence of effective therapies and vaccines, the Greek government options were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to deter viral transmission, minimize death rates, and resume normal activities. They included, inter alia, social distancing and lockdowns, travel restrictions, face-masks, teleworking, contact tracing, isolation/quarantine, and school/university closures [ 3 ].…”