“There is no certainty about the effectiveness of anti-Covid vaccines“; and “not even on the effects they cause”. The 500 health workers from Lombardy who are questioning the vaccination obligation contemplated by the Draghi decree, through their lawyers have put on paper their doubts regarding vaccines in the 52 pages of the appeal presented to the TAR of Milan and Brescia. The appointment in the courtroom is for July 14, when those two appeals will be discussed. That first appeal is signed by 300 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and hospital staff from Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo and Mantua. Operators of the areas most affected by the pandemic, who ask the Administrative Court to suspend and then cancel the vaccination obligation for medical staff. Another 200 filed a similar appeal to the Milan court. Both will be addressed at a hearing on July 14.
“None of us got vaccinated”
“None of us have yet been vaccinated against Covid,” the plaintiffs explain through their lawyers. Which, they hasten to specify: “It is not a no vax battle, but a democratic battle”. Because “here a person is forced to take a risk and if he does not take it he is prevented from practicing”, explains the lawyer Daniele Granara, a Ligurian professor, who presented the appeal in Brescia against Ats Bergamo, Ats Brescia, Ats Val Padana and Ats Montagna after he had done the same in Liguria in recent weeks, and he did the same in Milan, also against Ats Pavia. “Italy – reads the appeal – is the only country in the European Union to provide for the mandatory vaccination for certain categories of subjects for the prevention of Sars-CoV-2”.
“But where is the obligation?”
The act presented last June 22, “is based on the constitutional illegitimacy, under multiple profiles, of domestic law and European law, of an obligation relating to a vaccine whose safety or efficacy is not guaranteed, since the community unanimous scientific opinion that the experimentation carried out is insufficient, both from an objective point of view and from a temporal point of view “, is explained in the appeal. “The freedom of choice of treatment and the freedom of scientific research enshrined in the Constitution, inviolable rights and an integral part of the common constitutional heritage of the countries of the European Union, are claimed”.
Vaccine efficacy and safety under discussion
Doctors and nurses, but also pharmacists and hospital staff, who filed an appeal claim that “the Italian Legislator intended to provide for a unique vaccination obligation to the detriment of health and social health workers, forced to undergo one of the four vaccines authorized in Italy, without having certainty about their efficacy and safety and, moreover, without even having the possibility to choose which of the four to undergo “. For the lawyer Granara “the potential of vaccines in terms of their ability to prevent the transmission of the virus, the ability to prevent the contraction of the disease and the temporal duration of preventive efficacy are not yet known. the consequences, especially in the long term, deriving from the administration of vaccines are still known “.
Vaccination or suspension
Healthcare professionals in Italy are required by law to be vaccinated, under penalty of suspension from office. The issue is regulated by the Covid Decree of last April, converted into law on June 1st: “Until the complete implementation of the strategic vaccination plan – we read – and in any case no later than December 31, 2021, health workers who carry out activities in health facilities , health and social care, pharmacies and professional offices are obliged to undergo vaccination against Covid-19, unless there are specific documented clinical conditions. Vaccination is an essential requirement for exercising the profession and for carrying out the work performed by the obliged subjects “.
Here is the procedure
But in practice, what happens if a health worker who works in a public or private facility does not get vaccinated? The procedure provides that a suspension “ex lege” must be triggered, immediately after the competent ASL has ascertained the lack of vaccination. This was clarified by the Federation of Medical Orders (Fnomceo) in a communication sent to the presidents of the provincial orders. “In relation to the vaccination obligation for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection for all health professions and health care workers”, the document reads, the Federation “intervened at the Ministry of Health to acquire the exact interpretation of the regulatory obligations arising from the aforementioned provisions in order to provide precise addresses to the territorial Omceo “.
The answer was that the law attributes “to the health authority the verification of the non-observance of the vaccination obligation from which the suspension by law derives from the exercise of the health profession and from the performance of the working activity. The assessment is communicated by the Ats to the interested party, the employer and the professional associations so that they take note of it and adopt the provisions and measures of competence “.
The assessments of the Ats
At that point “the suspension is immediately communicated to the interested party by the professional association”. Therefore “it clearly emerges that once the Ats assessment deed has been received, the Order and, specifically, the competent Register Commission must promptly adopt a Commission resolution having the character of mere acknowledgment of the suspension of the professional concerned reporting the relative annotation in the Register “. Lastly, the Order “must notify the interested party of the effects deriving from the Ats assessment act, which consist in the temporary suspension from the exercise of the profession until the vaccination obligation is fulfilled or in any case no later than 31 December 2021. In addition, the communication must point out that only administrative appeal to the TAR within 60 days from the date of notification is allowed in respect of the suspension measure “.
In Italy 45 thousand unvaccinated health workers
According to the latest data provided by the Government, data referring to the end of June, a hard core of unvaccinated health workers persists in Italy: in all they are 45.753, equal to 2.36% of the total of 1.941.805 target operators. This is the national figure, but there are, however, realities where the percentage of no vaxes among the ranks of healthcare operators exceeds 10% as in the case of Friuli Venezia Giulia (11.9% who have not yet received the first dose) and in the province of Trento (11.03%). Worrying is also the case of Emilia Romagna, which has not yet immunized 14,390 operators, equal to 7.87% of the total regional staff allocation. The specter of legal suspension from professional activity weighs on them.
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