Vaccination against the coronavirus is not mandatory in our country, but in some places the vaccination rate is so low that intervention may have to be taken. A first step is compulsory vaccination of healthcare staff. «Anyone who does not get vaccinated is in my eyes a stupid person,» it sounds in some hospitals.
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Door Redactie Online
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In Flanders, more than 90 percent have already received at least one injection. Brussels is at the very bottom, because only 60 percent of the inhabitants of Brussels received a first shot. That makes Brussels even the worst student in the class in Western Europe.
Naturally
Making everyone mandatory is not (yet) an issue, but recently Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) announced that he does want to make vaccination mandatory for healthcare staff. Gazet van Antwerpen asked a few healthcare professionals for their opinion about that decision. «I work in intensive care in the covid zone and see the suffering in front of me every day. Vaccination is therefore a matter of course for me, just like I get my flu shot every year. The patients who are now being admitted to our intensive care unit are all antivaxers, between 35 and 65 years old. That says enough, doesn’t it?», says Vanessa Vermoens, nurse at UZ-VUB.
Peter Van Rosendaal, health care professional at the Wit-Gele Kruis in Antwerp, is also of that opinion. «I think it’s almost immoral if you don’t get vaccinated. As nurses, we were in the middle of the pandemic and have all seen what corona can do. I think we owe it to the patient and I am therefore absolutely in favor of mandatory vaccination of healthcare staff,” it sounds.
Mandatory for the entire population
Ignace Demeyer, emergency doctor at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw hospital in Aalst, even thinks we should go one step further. “Whether vaccination should be mandatory for healthcare is a stupid question. It should simply be mandatory for the entire population. Everyone is vaccinated for polio and tetanus, why not for corona? It is also the people who have not been vaccinated, who now end up in the emergency room and I am immensely annoyed by that. Anyone who does not allow themselves to be vaccinated is in my eyes a fool,” it reads.
Free to choose
Kinesiologist Lieven Maesschalk, the physiotherapist of the Red Devils, among others, has been vaccinated himself, but feels obligation is a bridge too far. «I have been vaccinated myself and have never had any doubts about it. You protect yourself, you protect your patients and you protect your fellow human beings. But in a democracy, compulsory vaccination is a bit difficult for me. I would leave freedom to the people, but insist on everyone’s responsibility,” says Maesschalk.
