The whole world is preparing for mass vaccination in the fight against coronavirus. Ukraine is discussing this issue even at the legislative level: the parliament has registered draft law No. 4142, in which people's deputies propose to make vaccinations for at least 10 diseases mandatory. In the initiative of people's deputies, there is not a word about a vaccine against the coronavirus, however, it is obvious that with its appearance in Ukraine, this norm can also be adopted. However, many people in the country have a negative attitude towards vaccinations in general, so forced vaccination can cause a lot of dissatisfaction among our compatriots.
ElitExpert found out whether compulsory vaccination is necessary in Ukraine, and what are its pros and cons.
Successful examples
In the XNUMXth century, there was an incredible jump in the growth of the world's population, which is still observed today. There is an opinion that this became possible thanks to the advent of vaccines and the improvement of the health sector in general, which significantly reduced the mortality rate.
At the same time, relatively recently, people suffered from more serious diseases than the coronavirus. A striking example is the plague, which killed tens of millions of people. However, thanks to Vladimir Khavkin from Odessa, who was the first to invent a plague vaccine, this disease became history. The same applies to other diseases: typhus and smallpox, which also became victims of millions of people.
That is, as practice shows, vaccines are the salvation of mankind. However, at that time many were afraid of them: for example, the same Khavkin, who treated people in India, had to repeatedly inject himself with the vaccine in front of many witnesses so that they would also agree to the vaccination. In other countries, the product of Odessa was despised only for the reason that he was a Jew.
It is interesting that various prejudices against vaccines are observed even in the progressive 21st century, which contributes to the emergence of new epidemics.
Positive from mass vaccination
The first argument "for" is that the individual immunity of a person who has undergone vaccination consists of the so-called collective or population immunity. Simply put: the more people are vaccinated, the fewer cases of severe illness or death in society. This was the case with smallpox and plague.
Another important aspect is the economy. We are all used to complaining about quarantine restrictions, which even leave people without work or, at the very least, hit their pockets. In a global sense, the lockdown also harms the country's economy as a whole. The consequences may be worse than the pandemic itself. Therefore, the logic is simple: there will be mass vaccination - there will be no sick people, there will be no sick people - there will be no quarantine, and therefore there will be losses.
Risks
However, there are certain risks. There are known cases when, after the vaccine, a person could begin to experience a serious deterioration in well-being, which sometimes led to fatal outcomes. There are several reasons for this. One of them — vaccination can become a trigger for the development of concomitant diseases. The second is a low-quality vaccine. Taking into account the corruption component in the country and the incompetence of a number of officials, there is a possibility that a low-quality vaccine against the coronavirus may be brought to Ukraine.
Also, one should not forget about the human factor: due to the wrong injection by the doctor, the patient may face extremely unpleasant consequences.
In addition, and this is another counterargument, not every child can be vaccinated against everything. Because due to the peculiarities of the state of health, in particular, the weakening of immunity, certain vaccinations may be dangerous for her health or life.
To this can be added the fact that in Ukraine there is no compensation mechanism for victims of vaccination. Also, according to Ukrainian legislation, no one can be subjected to forced medical manipulations. The last factor will become a powerful argument of opponents of vaccination. And there are quite a lot of such among Ukrainians, including those who oppose vaccinations solely because of prejudice or pseudoscientific facts. If such people are forced to vaccinate, a social explosion should be expected.
What to do?
Is mass vaccination against coronavirus necessary in Ukraine? Definitely yes. But not thoughtless and not for everyone. First of all, the competent authorities need to develop a mechanism for vaccination of the population - in particular, at least test it on volunteers before "releasing it to the people". In order to understand what negative consequences can be faced.
A mass PR company would not hurt to reach the population and make it clear to Ukrainians that the vaccine will save not only your life, but also the people around you.
