WHO Europe chief says vaccine mandates should be an 'absolute last resort' in the fight against COVID-19

• Hans Kluge said vaccine mandates should be an "absolute last resort" in the coronavirus fight.
• He said mandates can be effective in prompting vaccine uptake, but could also harm "public trust."

The World Health Organization's Europe regional director said coronavirus vaccine mandates should be an "absolute last resort" in fighting the virus.

"Mandates around vaccination are an absolute last resort and only applicable when all feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted," Hans Kluge told a Tuesday press conference.

He said that "the effectiveness of mandates is very context specific."

"What is acceptable in one society and community may not be effective and acceptable in another," he said.

According to the WHO transcript, Kluge said that vaccine mandates have "proved effective" in some places, but noted that in other places they could actually harm "public confidence and public trust, as well as vaccination uptake, must be considered."

He told governments "not to mandate vaccination if you haven't reached out first to the communities."

He also said that some people needed to be exempt from those mandates.

He also discussed the effect of imposing COVID-19 restrictions, saying that people's mental health needed to be looked after if their movement was restricted, and that other potential problems, such as domestic violence, have to be addressed.

Some countries have introduced vaccine mandates that limit the movements and access to services of people that have not been vaccinated.

Austria and Germany, for example, have imposed lockdowns of unvaccinated people only. Germany is also planning to introduce vaccine mandates next year.

And in the US last week, a group of Republicans threatened to fight President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate by bringing about a government shutdown. That crisis was averted at the last minute, with the House and Senate approving a short-term funding bill hours before the government would have run out of funding.