National vaccination programmes are among the world’s most successful public health initiatives. Creeping scepticism threatens that success, including the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. But British companies hoping to take matters into their own hands risk legal action.
The UK has not made vaccinations compulsory since an 1853 Act targeting smallpox. The modern national immunisation programme against infections is not mandatory. Unless governments opt to change this, employers will struggle to force workers to get jabs.
A legal system that prioritises patient autonomy and voluntary participation has its flaws. The UK failed to ensure that a recommended 95 per cent of children were immunised against vaccine-preventable diseases in 2019, according to data from the World Bank. Measles immunisation for children aged 12-23 months, for example, was just 91 per cent.