Opinion: Should Covid-19 vaccines be mandatory?

To be properly protective, Covid-19 vaccines need to be given to most people worldwide. Here, Dr Vageesh Jain (UCL Institute for Global Health) argues against the need for mandatory vaccines, while Dr Alberto Giubilini argues the reverse. Vageesh Jain, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Public Health Medicine, UCL. Mandatory vaccination does not automatically increase vaccine uptake. An project on epidemics and pandemics, which took place several years before Covid-19, found no evidence to support this notion. Looking at Baltic and Scandinavian countries, the project's report noted that countries "where a vaccination is mandatory do not usually reach better coverage than neighbour or similar countries where there is no legal obligation". According to the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, mandatory vaccination may be justified for highly contagious and serious diseases.