The conservative government of Poland has just passed a Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate for many of the country's workers.
Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski recently announced that teachers, police officers, uniformed security guards, firefighters, healthcare workers and other first responders must be fully vaccinated by March 1, 2022 if they want to keep their jobs. This vaccine mandate also applies to members of Poland's armed forces.
Niedzielski and other members of the ruling conservative Law and Justice Party are also trying to garner support for a policy that will allow employers to invade the privacy of their workers by being given the right to access their COVID-19 test results.
"The employer will – in accordance with this new approach – have the right to expect the test result to be presented by the employee – precisely in order to build a safe work environment," said Niedzielski.
In addition to imposing a vaccine mandate, Niedzielski said that some coronavirus restrictions are returning to Poland.
Starting Dec. 15, nightclubs will be closed entirely. Churches, hotels, restaurants and movie theaters will be forced to reduce their capacity even further from the current 50 percent to 30 percent. Public transportation capacity will similarly be reduced to 75 percent.
Schools will shift to fully online instruction between Dec. 20 and Jan. 9, 2022.
Polish citizens who are fully vaccinated are allowed to break capacity rules even though they can still catch and spread COVID-19 and are most likely responsible for Poland's current post-vaccine outbreak.
While lagging compared to many of its European neighbors, Poland still has a high vaccination rate. Fifty-four percent of the Polish people are fully vaccinated, and 10 percent have already received booster doses.
Poland has seen an average of 500 deaths related to COVID-19 per day in recent weeks, adding to the country's total of around 86,000 deaths due to coronavirus. The country has also seen an uptick in new cases. On multiple occasions, health authorities registered over 20,000 new infections per day.
Niedzielski argued that the restrictions and the vaccine mandate are necessary because health authorities do not see a downward trend appearing within the next few weeks. He also claimed that there is a risk that the post-vaccine omicron variant will appear and cause even more infections.
"These two factors require us to take decisive action," said Niedzielski.
Vaccine mandates expanding all over Europe
Niedzielski described Poland's move to mandate the taking of experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccines as "following in the footsteps of Germany and Austria," both of which have recently passed sweeping vaccination mandates.
Austria became the first Western nation to mandate vaccinations for virtually all of its residents. (Related: Austria mandates COVID-19 vaccines for ALL residents; those who refuse will pay steep fines.)
It was followed by Greece, which announced plans to mandate the deadly vaccine for senior citizens. Those who do not get vaccinated by Jan. 16, 2022, will be fined 100 euros ($113) for every month they refuse the vaccine. Russia has recently passed a similar mandate for people aged 60 and over.
Belgium, Hungary and Croatia have also introduced COVID-19 vaccine mandates for certain sectors of the workforce.
Both Belgium and Hungary's mandates are primarily for health workers. Belgian health workers who refuse the vaccine will be suspended beginning Jan. 1, 2022. Hungary's mandate extends to government workers. Croatia's mandate is for government and public employees, including teachers.
Germany's newly inaugurated left-wing government will begin a debate in parliament to implement a vaccine mandate for workers in hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities. This comes just a week after the country implemented restrictions against the unvaccinated.
Several other countries, like France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, have stopped short of mandating vaccinations. They are instead attempting to coerce the unvaccinated into taking the jabs by preventing them from going to certain places, such as restaurants, movies and sporting events, without proof of vaccination.
Multiple other nations, including the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovakia, have reintroduced lockdown restrictions or made existing regulations more prohibitive in response to rising cases.
Follow Vaccines.news for more stories about coronavirus vaccines and vaccine mandates.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.