Vaccinations: Individual freedom Vs the interest of the community. legislative updates and liability concerns

The legislative proposals on the subject of vaccinations constitute an important reason for further study in the Italian medico-legal arena, aimed at regulating a health act of great public importance of which much is being debated at the national and international level. The article begins with an overview of the vaccination problem, starting from a historical, social and jurisprudential perspective, and then reconnecting to the current Italian and European current vaccination discussion. The aim of this work is to identify areas of agreement between rights and interests constitutionally protected in relation to individual freedom versus the interest of the community, by reviewing, in addition to the Law, some regional regulations such as those of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. The need for legislative action stemmed from the data released by the World Health Organization concerning the alarming drop in vaccination coverage. The recent national legislation, in addition to improperly defined incentive actions such as obligations, provides in art. 2 information disclosures and an active involvement of the population. A strategy aimed at informing citizens, making politicians aware of the savings that such preventive strategies bring in order to support and maintain a universalistic health system and, above all, the definition at the state level of a clear and unique regulation that clarifies the importance of vaccination without however contemplating a mandatory obligation of it, can represent the starting point for regulating this topic. Finally, the deontological ethical ramifications deriving from some censorship rulings and in a case of a proposal for expulsion by the provincial medical associations of the doctors of Milan and Florence is also relevant. © 2019 Giuffre Editore SpA. All rights reserved.