No vax, Consulta rejects doctors and educators who oppose vaccines: yes to commitment

The deliberation lasted two days, after a hearing for the lawyers for the doctors and nurses No faxBut teachers who have been suspended from work and salaries for months spoke of “state extortion”. After two years of demonstrations and slogans, there it was Consult To make a decision, set a firm point on the matter Vaccines Anti-Covid, keeping the obligation imposed by the Draghi government in 2021 for certain professional groups – healthcare workers, professors, armed forces – with the aim of combating the spread of the epidemic, and declaring relevant penalties valid for those who do not comply. It is an issue that no longer applies today, since the green corridor and related rules no longer exist, and a decision has been made to return unvaccinated health workers to work. The interests at stake were, in addition to the questions of principle, above all economic: if the appeals had been accepted, the convicts who had recourse to the Constitutional Court could have been compensated for lost salaries. A complex case, with a large number of cases raised by five judicial offices with 11 orders: so many that it was necessary to appoint three rapporteurs, the judges Augusto Barbera, Stefano Pettitti and Filippo Patroni Griffe. Even the state attorney general’s office appointed three lawyers to defend the government’s causes: Enrico di Giovanni, Federico Catedral, and Beatrice Gaia Feduccia.

The questions are at the heart of the case, the actions that the No Vax team had contested in the past months in squares all over Italy and which had been rejected by the almost 2 million Italians who, although they fell into the prohibited categories, preferred to be subjected to suspension. From work and salary, then go to judges and administrative courts. The Consulta received the various doubts raised by the courts of Brescia, Catania and Padua, the Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy and the Administrative Judicial Council of the Region of Sicily: from the legality of the commitment to the proportionality of the penalties, especially with regard to teleworkers, to the safety of vaccines. However, the court rejected all allegations.

Decision: The Council considered that the choices of the legislator adopted during the pandemic period regarding the obligation to vaccinate health care workers are “not unreasonable or disproportionate.” Questions regarding the exclusion of payment of maintenance allowance to those suspended for refusing to be vaccinated were deemed “unfounded”. The decision applies to both healthcare workers and schools. On the other hand, the issue regarding the impossibility of health workers who have not been vaccinated to perform their work even if they do not have relations with the public was not addressed substantively, because it was considered “unacceptable for procedural reasons”.

Shorter Covid quarantine, Schillaci: «Less stringent measures if the data improves»

The previous decision of the Constitutional Court is nothing new: already in 2018 the Chancellor ruled in favor of compulsory vaccination, provided that three conditions are met: the improvement of the health of the individual and society, the fact that the consequences were acceptable, and the provision of fair compensation in the event of collateral and unexpected damage. To find out the details of the new decision, it will be necessary to wait for the reasons to be presented. Meanwhile, no wrongdoing appears in the world, with leader Stefano Pozzer who, despite the ruling, declares: “The obligation is decided by the people, not by a constitutional court that has no right to decide our future.” Two days ago, while the hearing was in progress in the courtroom, some demonstrators from all over Italy had gathered in front of the Consulta – about fifty in all – with tricolors tight around their necks, and banners and jackets with slogans praising freedom. Meanwhile, the estimate of the number of Italians who have decided not to comply with the vaccination obligation has arrived: among those over 50 years of age, there are 1,693,294. 808,958 belong to the age group between 50 and 59, in which, in general, adherence to the Covid prevention campaign was very high: 90.50%. The percentage that rises among those over 80: 4,402,891 — just over 95% — have decided to get vaccinated.