Spain plans to collect and share with other European Union nations information about residents who have decided not to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the country’s health minister said on Monday. Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa stressed that vaccination will not be mandatory, but, he said, a register will be made that will include all people who refused the vaccine after being called for vaccination by the Spanish public health service.
“Vaccination refusals will be kept on record,” said Illa in an interview with La Sexta, a Spanish television channel. “This is not a public document and will be done with the utmost respect for data privacy.”
Illa said vaccination is voluntary, but “we all see that the best way to defeat the virus is to vaccinate everyone, the more the better.” Vaccination, he added, must be considered “an act of solidarity with our loved ones and our citizenship”.
Illa’s comment came a day after Spain launched its vaccination program, with the goal of vaccinating 2.5 million people between January and March, all within priority health groups, starting with nursing home residents and health professionals who take care of them. But the vaccination plan also turned into political football. On Monday, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, Mayor of Madrid and spokesman for the main opposition Popular Party, blamed the government for the “lack of information” about the vaccine, which made many people still reluctant to take it. over there.
The vaccination plan must be “an exercise in transparency, not advertising,” said Martínez-Almeida in an interview with Spanish national radio.