'Mandatory' vaccination circulars: Group serves notice to health commissioner

A group called Awaken India Movement has served a legal notice to the health department, saying the department has mandated vaccination via various circulars.

It particularly refers to a circular issued for vaccination of teaching and non-teaching staff in the notice.

State health commissioner D Randeep, on his part, said though there is a Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee recommendation to not pay for unvaccinated Covid patients’ treatment in private hospitals under the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka scheme, the government has not agreed to the recommendation as it does not want to mandate vaccination.

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One of the members of the group that served the notice Manjunath Bambore told DH that though the government maintains vaccination is voluntary, there are at least two circulars that clearly say vaccination is mandatory.

One issued by the principal secretary to the government N Manjunath Prasad on July 16 this year that permits reopening of academic institutions pertaining to health and medical education clearly states, “Only students, teaching and non-teaching/other staff who have taken at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine will be permitted to attend the aforementioned colleges/institutions.”

Another is a circular issued by BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta, on August 26, that asks employers of all commercial establishments to ensure that all their employees have gotten at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. The circular is titled ‘Mandatory vaccination of all staff of commercial establishments/industries/hotels and restaurants/offices’.

Bambore told DH, “Though the central government maintains vaccination is voluntary, the government, through various circulars, has given an impression that it is mandatory. Thirteen members of our group, including me, have served a legal notice to the health commissioner and the chief secretary in this regard.”

Randeep admitted that the adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) committees haven’t been very actively working and that he will look into the issue.

He told DH, “They came in a group of 20 and handed over the notice. Their main moot point is each of their group members has undergone some or the other AEFI.”

“Any kind of AEFI will be looked into seriously henceforth at the highest level. Also, there are no services in Karnataka that are inaccessible merely because one is unvaccinated, be it educational institutions or commercial establishments,” he said.

“The right way to go about this is to address their concerns appropriately and not brush it aside. Data suggests that a large part of Covid hospitalisations are among the partly vaccinated and unvaccinated,” he said.

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