Mandatory electronic vaccination card and fines for evaders. The Health Ministry is preparing an amendment

The number of vaccine evaders is growing year by year, and the problem does not only affect Poland. As assessed by the director of the Public Health Department at the Health Ministry, the situation is not yet at the stage where the risk of epidemic outbreaks would arise, but the data raises concerns.

- 2022 immunization status against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis was 94 percent, polio 94.1 percent, hepatitis-B 97.3 percent, tuberculosis 97.7, and measles 90.9 percent. That's above 90 percent overall, but it's not like we can just watch these trends. We must make efforts to keep the population vaccinated as high as possible and promote vaccination," said Dariusz Poznanski.

These efforts are, on the one hand, information campaigns and facilitating access to vaccinations, including by increasing opportunities to get vaccinated at pharmacies. On the other hand, the ministry sees the need to seal the system by creating an appropriate legal framework. An amendment to the Law on Health Services, which is being prepared, will serve this purpose.

- We are planning a number of changes, including making the electronic vaccination card mandatory. Now it is optional. This change will significantly improve information on the level of immunization among children and adolescents. We will no longer have to rely on annual reports from primary health care," the department director said.

It will also be easier to draw consequences against those who evade the vaccination requirement. This is because the procedure currently in place is too convoluted.

- We want to simplify the enforcement proceedings targeting parents who fail to meet their immunization obligations. We want to switch from an elaborate, multi-stage enforcement proceeding, which is on the part of several levels of government administration, but also later administrative courts, to a mandate formula, which will be much simpler and more effective," announced Dariusz Poznanski.

Meanwhile, data from the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate shows that almost 6.4 thousand people evaded mandatory immunizations last year. Nearly 3.2 thousand enforcement notices were issued. In addition to monitoring vaccination rates and enforcing fines, the inspectorate also engages in campaigns to promote vaccination and tries to reach out to evaders. However, the effect is unsatisfactory.

- In more than a dozen stations, we have launched an initiative in which we invite vaccine evaders to meet with health inspection personnel. During such meetings we make them aware of the danger we face. Participation is voluntary, so these meetings unfortunately have little interest. As a rule, evaders have already formed a precise position on vaccination. Anti-vaccine movements have growing power and reach, and the target groups are primarily young people who have not encountered serious infectious diseases. Talking about the consequences of not vaccinating is therefore abstract for them," assessed Chief Health Inspector Krzysztof Saczka.