A Reggio Emilia court on
Thursday rejected a suit from the parents of a girl who was
excluded from nurseries in Capri and Correggio because she had
not been vaccinated.
The parents are conscientious objectors to vaccines and
deliberately did not have her vaccinated, saying a set of
compulsory vaccinations for school admissions was
discriminatory.
The sentence was one of the first in Italy on the issue,
which has roiled the country.
On November 22 the Constitutional Court rejected the Veneto
regional government's appeal against compulsory vaccinations for
school admissions, saying the issues in question were the
business of the national legislator.
In its ruling, the top court said making vaccinations
compulsory was justified by the fall in the numbers of children
that have been vaccinated.
The government has made 10 vaccinations compulsory for school
admission.
Several parents across Italy have seen their children refused
admission because they have not had the necessary vaccinations.
There have been public protests against the government move.
European Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said
recently that 'no-vax' anti-vaccination movement members should
"visit the graves of children" who died because they were not
vaccinated.
Then, he said, they should "think about what they are doing".
He said they have a "moral responsibility" for what happens
to their children and they "don't understand what they are
doing".
Andriukaitis said "it would be a disgrace if the families
that belong to these movements were to bury their children just
as happened this year in those countries where children die of
measles".
"I'd like to invite them to visit the cemeteries of
the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries: they'll find many tombs of
dead children who died because there were no vaccinations".
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