Covid, Giuffrè: “mandatory vaccines? First incentive step, perhaps with a lottery like the USA”

“In our legal system, compulsory vaccination is legitimate on the basis of the provisions of Article 2 and 32 of the Constitution. The terms of balancing with other rights and freedoms were defined by the Constitutional Court already at the beginning of the nineties. The citizen can be obliged to vaccinate in view of the interest in the health of the entire community; conversely, the community will have to take care of the existential needs of the citizen, also through adequate compensation, in the very rare cases where vaccination treatment causes damage to the health of those has received”. This is explained by the constitutionalist Felice Giuffrè, full professor at the University of Catania, who, urged by Adnkronos on the vaccine lottery in progress as an incentive to vaccinate in some US states, responds with a smile: “If in Italy someone has thought about establishing the” receipt lottery “, I see no obstacles to introducing vaccine lottery”. “The incentive path is the first step – he remembers – But if the objective of immunization with promotional activities is not reached in a reasonable time, all that remains is to resort to the vaccination obligation. However, since these are fundamental rights, it is up to the Parliament decides when and how to foresee it. The Government can do so, even immediately, by decree-law, which must be converted into law within 60 days “. “I do not understand the ‘no-vax’ – he observes – but I understand, instead, that the parents of minors may have some fears, but the Parliament with an act having the force of law can establish the obligation for them too (as, moreover, , already happens and has happened in the past). However, in a democratic order, for good practice, it is better to graduate the interventions: first the incentive, then, possibly, the obligation “. But from his point of view the question is legally more complex for minors? “All of us parents, rightly, ask ourselves questions about a vaccine that is still being tested 4. But from a legal point of view, the choice of the Legislator prevails, an expression of popular sovereignty, even if, certainly, the reference to minors makes the balance between the interests at stake are even more delicate: one thing – he notes – is to give a vaccine to a sixty-year-old, another to a boy. The problem, however, is that we are children of a society that is no longer accustomed to risk, with which, on the other hand, man, being fragile, must know how to reckon. Unfortunately, in view of next September, the data of last year are clear: the infections have risen two weeks after the reopening of the schools. These statistics are irrefutable. Parliament he will have to take this into account to ensure safe return to the counters “(by Roberta Lanzara)