Italy makes vaccinations compulsory for the over 50s
As infections surge governments are looking at new measures
The sheer scale of the number of infections to the latest omnicom variant and the speed that it is spreading have caused Italy to be the first major country to make vaccinations compulsory. This will be for those of 50 and above.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that those who are fully vaccinated are less likely to be spreaders than those who have yet to have the jab so the logic is clear.
At the same time the world’s leading tennis player and we’ll known anti-vaxxer, Djokovic, has found that he won’t be able to defend his Australian Open tennis crown because the country barred him from entering following his refusal to be vaccinated. This is a compulsory requirement for all arrivals however elvated they might be
All this is because health systems around the world are going to struggle to cope with the millions of new infections every day as a result of the latest variant.
You can see other countries being forced to follow the Italian example but I doubt whether the UK will follow this route in the near future. Given the size of the Tory MP rebellion on new controls that Johnson faced before Christmas, he will be very reluctant to press ahead with a measure that he would find difficult getting his own party to back fully.
On Smarkets it is a 93% chance that no mandatory vaccination won’t happen in England in 2022.