Patients line up to get vaccinated against COVID-19, at Aristotelous Square, in the center of the Greek city of Thessaloniki on November 26, 2021.
Sakis Mitroldis / AFP via Getty Images
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Sakis Mitroldis / AFP via Getty Images
Patients line up to get vaccinated against COVID-19, at Aristotelous Square, in the center of the Greek city of Thessaloniki on November 26, 2021.
Sakis Mitroldis / AFP via Getty Images
Faced with a spike in coronavirus cases and stalled vaccinations, two countries in the European Union are giving their citizens an ultimatum: get a COVID-19 vaccine or else face financial consequences.
On Tuesday, Greece announced that everyone aged 60 and over must be vaccinated by mid-January or face a monthly fine of 100 euros (about $114).
Earlier this month, Austria said it would require its entire adult population to be vaccinated by February 1. Those who refuse will be given the vaccine. to pay up to 3,600 euros, or just over 4,000 dollars, a fine.
“It’s not a punishment,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his cabinet during a televised meeting. “I would say that’s the price of health. It’s also a fair act for people who get vaccinated. It’s not right that they’re deprived of health care services because others are stubbornly from being immunized. refuse to do the obvious.”
Greece is the first EU country to target the age group that mandates vaccination. Citing government data, Mitsotakis said about 83 percent of older Greeks are vaccinated. Those who don’t – more than 500,000 people – are more likely to get very sick and die. Greece recorded more than 7,500 infections, hundreds of hospitalizations and 88 deaths on Tuesday alone, according to Greece’s National Public Health Organisation.
Monthly fines for refusing vaccines are significant for retirees. The average pension is 730 euros a month.
Both Greece and Austria switched to mandatory vaccinations after a series of measures – including ban unvaccinated people from indoor locations – failure. Both countries have anti-vaccination movements, fueled by conspiracy theories, religion, and anti-authoritarianism. In Austria, an unvaccinated far-right politician has promoted the use of the horse dewormer ivermectin to treat COVID-19. His group has joined thousands of people who went down the street? to oppose vaccine containment and authorization measures.
“Societies should stick together, care about each other, in times like these but instead they should be,” said Christine Bertl, a biochemist from Vienna who advocates for the mandatory vaccination drive. We are splitting into two worlds, vaccinated people and unvaccinated people. “And unvaccinated people only think about themselves.”
Bertl added that it is rejecting EU-purchased vaccines that could otherwise be made available to countries that cannot afford them.
More than 61% of Greeks and 67% of Austrians are vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, though those numbers could soon rise. Some reports suggest that mission to be motivate the unvaccinated to get their shots.
The vaccine mandates come as the world scrambles to respond to the new omicron variant. The omicron appears to be highly transmissible, the scientists say, although researchers still have limited information about this variant. Infections have emerged in several EU countries, including Austria. Mitsotakis says he hopes the variant will also be able to make its way to Greece.
