Spain To Share Vaccination Refusal Registry With EU
Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Spain’s government has warned citizens that it will set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated against the new coronavirus and share it with other European Union member states.
The move by Spain comes amid a broader debate in the EU on limiting the rights of those refusing vaccinations due to declining support for the jabs across Europe.
In Spain, the proportion of Spaniards unwilling to take a COVID 19 vaccine plunged to 28 percent in December from 47 percent last month, according to polls.
The survey by the state-funded CIS research institute found 40.5 percent of respondents are willing to have the jab, while 16.2 percent would do so if it is shown to be “reliable.”
Similar opposition to COVID-19 jabs has been reported in other EU member states where people raise doubts about their ingredients and the speed in which vaccines were developed.
Confirmed reports of people suffering side effects such as allergic reactions and dizziness haven’t helped raise enthusiasm for Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and other vaccines.
NOT PUBLIC
Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa made clear that the registry of people refusing the vaccine would not be made public. But it was unclear what authorities would have access to the widely shared registry.
Illa told La Sexta television that vaccination against the virus — which as in most EU nations began in Spain over the weekend — would not be mandatory, yet. “What will be done is a registry, which will be shared with our European partners… of those people who have been offered it and have simply rejected it,” he said.
“It is not a document which will be made public, and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection,” he stressed.
The minister claimed that employers or members of the general public would not have access to it, but the list was expected to raise questions among rights advocates. Spain saw one of Europe’s harshest lockdowns this year. Yet, it remained one of Europe’s worst-hit countries by the pandemic, with the virus death toll passing the 50,000 mark on Monday, according to the health ministry.
Altogether, the EU’s 27 nations have recorded at least 16 million coronavirus infections and more than 336,000 related deaths on a population of roughly 450 million people.
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