Scientists warned last week that the proposals to impose vaccine passports and other restrictions on the movements of unvaccinated people in the UK should be treated with caution. They said that such plans wouldn't lead to rapid reductions in Covid-19 case numbers and could cause hostility to future vaccine campaigns.
The warnings were made after several European countries, including Belgium, Germany and Norway, revealed last week that they were preparing to beef up measures to tackle low Covid-19 vaccine case rates. Austria became the first country in Europe to make coronaviruses jabs mandatory. All citizens will have to have one by February of next year.
Slovakia and Greece have banned unvaccinated people from all non-essential stores and shopping malls.
The protests were widespread across Europe. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Vienna, carrying signs that said "no to vaccine", and Dutch police shot and wounded at least two people after rioting erupted in Rotterdam over new Covid-19 measures.
Most countries have vaccine passports that enjoy substantial support. Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University said that they are a way of encouraging people to have jabs.
It takes a further two weeks for a person to be fully protected from the H1N1 strain. If the priority is to bring down transmission rates as quickly as possible, I wouldn't go first for vaccine passports. I would reach first for negative-test passports.
Raghib Ali of Cambridge University supported this point. He told the Observer that he didn't think mandatory vaccines were a good idea. Maintaining the trust of people is the key thing with vaccination. Consent to take a medication or vaccine would be lost if you removed it.
The UK is not in danger of following Europe. Europe is following us in terms of case numbers because of the later arrival of the Delta wave on the continent and because their vaccine programmes are starting later than here.
The evidence is that Scotland's certification scheme produced only a slight increase in vaccination rates.
Williams said that vaccine passports would be unlikely to cause a backlash among those who were hesitant about having a jab. There is a risk of a counter effect for people who are resistant to the vaccine, which could have consequences if you introduce new vaccine programmes.
Peter English is a vaccine expert. When it's already high, mandatory vaccination doesn't tackle the issue of vaccine take up. It is difficult to enforce. How do you protect someone who doesn't want to be protected? Does it increase the number of people who take up the vaccine? Is it possible that it increases distrust in vaccination, increases dissent and protest, and drives down vaccine take up?
Professor David Matthews of Bristol University said it was important to keep talking to adults who had decided not to have the vaccine in the UK. We need to engage with them and hopefully they will think again about their reasons for not getting vaccine because of the information we have from around the world that the vaccines are safe and they work. Vaccination is the most effective way out of the pandemic and the best way to avoid more lockdowns.
Professor Lawrence Young of Warwick University said that vaccine passports should be considered an important weapon in the battle against Covid-19.
If current levels of infections and hospitalisations in England continue, we will have no choice but to introduce a vaccine passport and re-introduce compulsory facemasks in crowded, poorly ventilated indoors spaces. These are small annoyances that could help us through the winter months.
