Photo for illustrative purposes.
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(CRHoy.com) The IV Chamber rejected an amparo appeal filed by a teacher against the Ministry of Public Education (MEP), on January 13, 2021, after he was denied entry to his educational center for not be vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to what is read in the document, the teacher alleged that his labor and constitutional rights, since that he had communicated to his superiors that he has health problems that were recorded in a medical report. He argued that he had a long history of allergies and provided an official letter from the Prosecutor’s Office of the College of Physicians that validates the opinions in general, however, the documents were not accepted by his leadership.
In his management, the appellant also explained how the National Vaccination Law establishes the obligation of the vaccines that the National Vaccination and Epidemiology Commission establishes with that character, but does not contemplate any sanction for not complying with said obligation. In addition, he argued that the vaccine is an experimental treatment.
Given this, the Chamber argued that taking into account current legislation, it is not possible to affirm in principle that the appellant’s fundamental rights have been violated, since the mandatory application of the vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus was defined by the National Commission for Vaccination and Epidemiology (CNVE)in accordance with the powers granted by the National Vaccination Law.
The magistrates also recognized that vaccination is not absolute, but that the decree itself contemplates the possibility that the person presents a medical contraindication. For this, they recalled, there are “Procedural Manuals for the execution of vaccination against covid-19 in the health establishments of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund”, in which the medical contraindications for vaccination have been explained.
Therefore, the ruling confirmed that workers must be vaccinatedwith the exception of those officials who, due to a duly declared medical contraindication, are unable to receive the vaccine, a situation that is not that of the teacher who filed the amparo appeal.
The Chamber also ratified the obligation to apply vaccines against diseases when so recorded by the CNVEbeing, precisely, a preventive measure to avoid the spread.
Thus concluding that the consequences of its mandatory application no can be considered a form of discrimination.
According to the latest MEP report, 5,803 officials, including teachers and administrative staff, still did not receive a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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