School, what happens to compulsory vaccination
Vaccination obligation for school staff. Maria Scopece's in-depth analysis with the positions of the government, constitutionalists and the unions of principals and teachers
The introduction of the vaccination obligation for teachers and school staff was not foreseen in the latest anti Covid decree approved by the government .
THE MOVES OF SON
"The goal is to have 60 per cent of the children vaccinated within the first ten days of September in order to be able to return in the presence or with very few restrictions," said Commissioner Francesco Paolo Figliuolo. It is a priority to vaccinate students aged "12 or older," he wrote to the Regions. And to the same administrations Figliuolo asked, by August 20, to know the number of teachers and school staff who will be missing, which, in truth, is already known now. However, he asked for the number of absentees, not the lists with their first and last names
The principals in favor of compulsory vaccination
The issue of the vaccine for teachers and school staff is taking hold, also in view of the meeting at the Ministry of Education with the unions to begin discussing the protocol to return to class in September. To revive the idea of the compulsory vaccine for teachers and school staff was the head of the principals' union, Antonello Giannelli . "To resume safely and do without distancing, as stated in the opinion of the CTS, all or almost all of the vaccinated people would be needed, according to percentages that the CTS itself should specify – says the principal Giannelli in a speech to RaiNews24 -. If it is not possible to obtain this vaccination very quickly, a form of obligation should be assessed for those who are in contact with users ".
Vaccination obligation in schools: the yes of the constitutionalists
Sabino Cassese, jurist, academic and president emeritus of the Constitutional Court, on the hypothesis of vaccination obligation , explained that "the government is right to follow a progressive criterion, first the conviction, then a certification that guarantees the interest of the community of which it speaks the Constitution, only as a last resort a generalized vaccination obligation for all "and on the green pass he reminds that" it does not involve a generalized obligation but, as has been observed, constitutes a requirement or suitability ". “The Constitution – added the former Minister of the Civil Service, Cassese, al Dubbio – provides that compulsory health treatments can be introduced, setting only one limit: that of doing so by law. Hence, it requires parliamentary intervention. Furthermore, the Constitution establishes that the Republic protects health, adding that it does so both to protect an individual's right and to ensure an interest of the community. The consequence of these two provisions is very clear. Mandatory health treatments may be arranged. The constitutional court added that the law that provides them must be non-discriminatory and proportionate ”.
"The vaccination obligation is constitutionally legitimate, we must have no doubts about this," he said Open the constitutionalist Francesco Saverio Marini , full professor of Public Law at the Tor Vergata University of Rome and consultant for administrative law issues at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. “ The idea of obligation is founded in the Constitution for the simple fact that the principle of freedom of health, contained in art. 32 of the Charter, a precise limit is set which is that of the interest of the community – adds Marini -. If your freedom of health goes beyond the interest of the community, you can intervene with a restrictive measure ". And he precise his thoughts when he talks about teachers. “What we must keep in mind is the fact that the vaccination obligation linked to the pandemic is instrumental to the principle of the interest of the community – concludes Marini -. It goes without saying that if a specific category of population is more in daily contact than others with a large number of people, it has more chances of being a danger to the community in which it lives. This legitimizes the legislator to act against the specific group ". Asked about the obligation to present the green pass in situations of sociality, the constitutionalist Cesare Mirabelli also spoke about the school. “I am in favor if it is a requirement for fundamental activities, such as services in contact with the public, and if a charge for optional and recreational actions – the constitutionalist told AdnKronos -. In some contexts such as at school or in hospitals , it is absolutely necessary, while for transport or restaurants it is up to a technical evaluation ”.
The school staff number 220 thousand unvaccinated
“Currently we are 84%, as General Figliuolo said, for the first dose and 75% for the second dose – said the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi -. There has therefore been a very responsible response and we will also take this into account. We are working day and night to reopen in presence in safe conditions, then the government in its collegiality will decide ". At the moment there are 220 thousand unvaccinated teachers . “It seems a very high number, while instead it is a low percentage and localized in some regions – says Undersecretary of Health Pierpaolo Sileri from the pages of Corriere -. I believe that a moral suasion is necessary in those regions that would otherwise have serious problems in teaching ”. Among other things, this data may not be entirely real. “From a certain moment the teachers have had the dose not as a category but by age group like all the others – continues Giannelli -. I fear that in the hubs they have continued to give injections to teachers and professors without registering them as such ".
The unions ask for clarity
The teachers' unions, Flc Cgil, Cisl and Uil Scuola , do not say they are opposed to the imposition of a vaccination obligation, but certainly they have not said they are openly in favor. "Thinking about the compulsory vaccination –say the school unions – is the simplest attempt that politics has managed to give birth after almost nothing has done to structurally reduce the real risk factors of contagion in schools, that is, to reduce the number of pupils per class and increase the staff, increase the space available, prepare adequate school transport, put into operation an efficient procedure for the control and isolation of infections and update the safety protocol: all issues on which we have been asking for concrete solutions that have not been they arrive".
“If the vaccine for teachers were to become mandatory, the majority of the 220,000 people who work in the school world would. There is no hard core of no vax among teachers ”, say the trade unions. “We immediately asked that school staff be given a preferential access lane for vaccinations; if the number of unvaccinated is still high, it is largely due to the uncertain and contradictory way in which information and decisions about the types of vaccine to be used have followed ”, says Maddalena Gissi, national secretary of CISL school . Responsibility for these delays in school would lie in the government's smoky communication campaign. "The government makes a mea culpa : the information campaign was confused and unclear."
Barbara Floridia: "I do not consider the obligation to vaccinate useful"
In the meantime, the government is having concerns about the introduction of the vaccination obligation for school staff. To say it is Undersecretary Barbara Floridia. “ Personally, he says at this stage I do not consider the compulsory vaccination of the school a strictly necessary solution – says the undersecretary -. It is important to continue to urge , as I myself am doing, school staff to get vaccinated, especially in those areas where the percentage of vaccinated professors is particularly low, in the knowledge that the number of teachers vaccinated at the moment exceeds 80% and that we have just under 2 months to further increase this percentage “. The undersecretary also posted a video on her social channels in which she invites teachers to get vaccinated.
Giannelli: "The principals will not guard the vaccinated"
Antonello Giannelli, however, warns that the principals will not be able to carry out the task of checking the vaccination status of their teachers. "If politics decides to make the vaccine mandatory for school staff, no one thinks that we managers can start to find out who made the dose and who did not – continues Giannelli to RaiNews24 -. The law does not even allow us today. It is the health system that will have to take care of identifying who has not been vaccinated, certainly not us ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/scuola-che-cosa-succede-sullobbligo-vaccinale/ on Sun, 25 Jul 2021 07:41:42 +0000.