The Kremlin’s agenda does not include the issue of introducing mandatory vaccination against coronavirus, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, told RIA Novosti.
Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that now the Russian authorities proceed from the voluntariness of vaccinations, however, in order to protect the overwhelming majority of the population, such decisions can be made mandatory. According to him, in this situation “lawyers will have to give their answers.”
As Peskov pointed out, the idea of changing the legislation in order to oblige Russians to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 is not being worked out.
As Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute of Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics, noted earlier, the current laws do not allow forcing vaccinations: Russians have the right to voluntarily informed receipt of medical care or to refuse it. At the same time, punishment for unwillingness to vaccinate is possible – if it was possible to prove that it led to harm to the health of other citizens.
Vaccination in Russia began in December: then certain categories of Russians could be vaccinated. On January 18, on behalf of Vladimir Putin, a massive vaccination campaign was launched.
Three two-component vaccines are now available in Russia – Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona and KoviVak. In addition, Sputnik Light, the first component of Sputnik V, was also registered. According to the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev, this drug is mainly focused on foreign markets.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said last week that more than 24 million Russians have already gone through various stages of vaccination. According to him, it is necessary to form collective immunity by the end of the year.
