Earlier this week, the Finnish government asked experts to comment on whether the passport should be redesigned so that it would only be available to those who were fully vaccinated and possibly recently recovered from Covid-19.
Preparatory work has only just begun and little detail has been revealed about the government’s approach. However, it is already clear that the project involves significant legal challenges, Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) admitted on Tuesday. His assessment was repeated a day later by Pasi Pohjola, Director of Strategic Affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
Tomi Voutilainen, Professor of Public Law at the University of Eastern Finland, expressed reservations from the vaccine passport to YLE on Wednesday, citing the rights of people who recovered from Covid-19. He explained that it is difficult to justify restricting fundamental rights to people with natural immunity to the virus.
“What justifies vaccinating people if they are protected from a coronavirus disease?”
Acquiring rights simply cannot be the basis for vaccinations, according to Voutilainen. โA vaccine passport would cause more problems. You would force people to get vaccinated without necessarily having any medical reason to do so.
Some practical problems would also arise from the fact that home tests are not considered sufficient evidence of recovery and that access to laboratory tests is restricted. โItโs a problem that a national decision has been made that not all symptoms can be tested. Not everyone gets official confirmation whether they have coronavirus or not, “he pointed out.
Lasse LehtonenThe head of diagnostic services at the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) told YLE that he primarily supported the passport as a way to increase the use of vaccines among the population.
“Every country strives to get as many vaccines as possible. Vaccinations are a key way to prevent diseases, and promoting them even with a coronavirus passport is an acceptable goal,” he told YLE Radio Finland on Wednesday.
According to Lehtonen, the legal challenges are largely self-inflicted. The regulation on the European Union’s digital green certificate, he recalled, does not dictate what constitutes sufficient evidence of recovery from the disease.
โThe EU regulation leaves some room for maneuver to show it,โ he said.
โFinland has taken a strict stance and demanded that the disease be detected by a PCR test. But that is our national decision. “
Lehtonen also saw that booster vaccinations would be an ideal way to obtain a passport, as applications for a recovery certificate could strain the health care system. The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has estimated that in some situations, people could get vaccinated as early as a couple of months after recovering from the disease.
โI donโt think itโs appropriate to use health care resources to write testimonials, but I would rather encourage sufferers to get vaccinated if necessary. [the passport] to travel, โhe told YLE.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page