A Danish law that would have allowed health authorities to forcibly inject people with a Covid-19 vaccine has reportedly been abandoned after more than a week of public protests.
The proposed ‘epidemic law’ would have replaced an existing emergency law passed in the spring which gave the government sweeping powers to fight Covid-19, but protests lasting nine days have seen the radical measures which politicians hoped to make permanent shelved for now despite the emergence of two possible Covid-19 vaccines.
DENMARK: 9 days of protests over a new law that "would be able to define groups of people who must be vaccinated. People who refuse the above can be coerced through physical detainment, with police allowed to assist."https://t.co/LN0SBVKUE8
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) November 14, 2020
With the assistance of police, the epidemic law would have allowed forced vaccinations of people from defined groups that refuse the vaccine, as well as forcible medical examinations and detention in isolation centres.
DENMARK: protests over a new law that "would be able to define groups of people who must be vaccinated. People who refuse the above can be coerced through physical detainment, with police allowed to assist."https://t.co/lEiHVVdEvn
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) November 15, 2020
“The Danish Health Authority would be able to define groups of people who must be vaccinated in order to contain and eliminate a dangerous disease,” reports the Local.
“People who refuse the above can – in some situations – be coerced through physical detainment, with police allowed to assist.”
The Danish Medical Association (DMA) were among other groups calling for the law to be dropped by legislators.
“We think these are regulations that go too far and ought to be changed,” Camilla Rathcke, director of the DMA told Danish news outlet DR, adding that such power would be “overstepping boundaries”.
The law would also have left the decision about which diseases merit such force solely in the hands of the health minister.
“We don’t suspect a minister to have bad intentions. But decisions on emergency situations need broad parliamentary support,” Anders Beich, head of the Danish College of General Practitioners, told DR.
Activists who had protested on the streets of Copenhagen for nine days shared their delight at the news:
The Danish Medical Association believes that the new epidemic law goes too far: the new epidemic law can enter into force if Denmark is affected by a coronavirus version 2.0 the word coercion is included 92 times and power 84 timeshttps://t.co/73f3mS9XVG
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) November 16, 2020