BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – A judge in northwestern Spain has overturned a family’s objections and decided to allow health authorities to administer a coronavirus vaccine to a disabled woman in a residence.
The case appears to be the first known instance of a court in Europe requiring someone to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Spanish government has repeatedly stressed that the shootings would be voluntary, as would the authorities in other European countries.
In a ruling that saw The Associated Press on Wednesday, the judge of the court of the northwestern autonomous community of Galicia ruled in favor of the request for a nursing home to overturn the refusal of the family of the elderly resident and proceed to give her the vaccine.
The medical staff of the nursing home considered that the resident suffered a cognitive loss to the extent that she was “unable to give valid consent,” according to the sentence.
Judge Javier Fraga Mandián said the court had a legal obligation to intervene to protect women’s health. He said his decision was not based on the welfare of other residents, but that “the existence of tens of thousands of deaths” from the virus in Spain provided what he considered irrefutable evidence that not getting the vaccine was more risky than possible side effects.
The company that runs the nursing home, DomusVi, told the AP through its public relations agency that of all the homes it manages throughout Spain, this was the only case of a family who did not want to vaccinate a resident who had been considered incapable of making personal health decisions.
DomusVi said 98% of the 15,000 residents of their country residences agreed to receive the vaccine. She said the remaining 2% refused to get vaccinated, but unlike the woman she is considered fit to make her own health decisions.
DomusVi said that he requested the intervention of the court in the interest for the health of all the workers and residents of the residences of the residence and the workers of the facilities of Galicia.
Spain has administered more than 581,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since it was authorized by the European Union in late December. Spain is also expected to deploy its first batches of Modern vaccine.
Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Thursday that Spain sees “a very low rejection of the vaccine, almost anecdotal.”
Nursing homes in Spain and throughout Europe have been devastated by the coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly among the elderly and people weakened by pre-existing medical conditions. It is estimated that more than 25,000 people with COVID-19 have died in Spanish residences since the start of the pandemic.
Other court cases on the involuntary administration of vaccines may be on the horizon.
In southern Spain, a state prosecutor recently said that any family member who acted as legal guardians for residents of nursing homes for the disabled could lose guardianship if he refused to give permission for his relatives. were vaccinated.
The Italian government last week passed the decree to explicitly authorize hospital heads and individual doctors to express consent to inoculation on behalf of patients who cannot do it themselves, including residents of nursing homes. with a disability and without a guardian to give them consent.
The procedure requires doctors to submit written documentation to a judge, who has 48 hours to approve or deny the application.
Although almost a dozen European countries have mandatory vaccination laws against diseases such as polio, measles and diphtheria. Laws are rarely enforced by the courts, although a Belgian court in 2008 fined and sentenced two groups of parents to five months in prison for failing to vaccinate their children against polio.
Unlike COVID-19 vaccines, which are still considered technically experimental, vaccines required by law in Europe are established vaccines that have been in use for decades.
The World Health Organization has previously said it does not recommend forcing coronavirus vaccination, for fear it could undermine public confidence in available vaccines.
At a press conference last month, Dr Kate O’Brien, who heads the WHO vaccine department, said she would think it would be better if countries created a “positive environment” for vaccination in place of mandates. But O’Brien acknowledged that it might make sense in some high-risk settings, such as hospitals, to require staff members and patients to receive vaccines.
Some ethics said the court’s decision to order the woman’s vaccination is probably justified by her high risk of COVID-19 as she lives in a nursing home.
“The court has to look at the balance of probabilities and, if the woman is elderly, she has a much higher risk of dying from COVID than from a low-probability adverse event,” said Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Center for Ethics internship at Oxford University.
He said that even in countries that do not have mandatory vaccination laws, the state is obliged to protect people when those who make decisions on their behalf may not be acting in their best interest.
“If you don’t vaccinate this woman and she dies of COVID, people will say,‘ Why didn’t you protect her? Savulescu said.
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Maria Cheng reported from Toronto. Nicole Winfield of Rome and Aritz Parra of Madrid contributed to this story.
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