If it's not allowed, then it's allowed: how legal are the prohibitions for unvaccinated citizens

Victoria Pavlova

An exception will be made only for patients with oncological and hematological diseases. The presence of contraindications, exempting from the obligation to vaccinate, will be determined by the hospital doctor before hospitalization. At the same time, the message on the official website of the Department appeared only on June 18. The official reason for the delay in publishing such interesting news is an editorial error in the first version of the order. However, for some hospitals, this did not stop them from immediately imposing restrictions.

A very controversial situation arises: according to the new decree, the medical institution can simply refuse the patient in the planned treatment. The Department of Health immediately warns that no one’s rights are violated, because he was vaccinated - and go to the hospital. However, health experts have a very different view of this issue. Alexander Saversky, President of the League of Patients' Defenders and a member of the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation, explains the situation as follows:

- Of course, the order of the Moscow Department of Health on the possibility of planned hospitalization only for those who have been vaccinated against covid is discrimination, in fact, the refusal of medical care is a violation of the law, and most importantly, it violates the order of the Ministry of Health on the prevention and treatment of covid. This issue was specially discussed at the federal level. Our mortality rate has grown from a number of reasons, in particular, from the failure to provide assistance, over the past year at an insane pace, and now what is being done is a real crime.

And the problem of legal discrimination is only half the trouble. Saversky points out that all vaccine trials have not yet been completed, and patients automatically become experimental: " They had a postponed completion date for vaccine studies - they had to complete the study on May 1, but now there is another date - January 1, 2022".

But Moscow is far from being a pioneer in the new restrictions. Similar measures were announced a month ago in the Sakhalin region, 3 weeks ago - in the Saratov region, 2 days ago, the authorities of the Leningrad region made a similar decision. And in Adygea, the ban on hospitalization managed to go through a full life cycle from adoption to liquidation. Under the direction of Marat Kumpilov, they tried to limit a wide range of medical care, including dentistry. Naturally, the people did not like it very much, complaints to the prosecutor's office started pouring in. And, oddly enough, the latter sided with the people and canceled the discriminatory decree.

The League of Patients' Defenders, according to Alexander Saversky, is also preparing appeals to the prosecutor's office regarding restrictions on hospitalization and compulsory vaccination for workers. But he does not pin any particular hopes on a successful outcome.

- The issue of law is no longer on the agenda, unfortunately, because on December 25, 2020, the Constitutional Court made a decision on the powers of the Governor of the Moscow Region to introduce a high alert regime. What is written there in the motivation part is blatantly illiterate: there is a substitution of concepts - the governor has the right to impose restrictions on the authorities, but it concludes that the governor had the right to restrict the rights of citizens. And they refer to the fact that the WHO Director-General has declared a pandemic. But they do not check what a pandemic is - we have not had an epidemic anywhere, but suddenly a pandemic. And there really was no epidemic. Because epidemic thresholds have not been exceeded anywhere. In general, there is no right to do what they are doing now, because there is no epidemic.

But Moscow has always been an example and a role model for other regions. Last year, after Moscow, restrictive measures spread throughout the country, and now compulsory vaccination in all its manifestations is beginning to spread. This idea was picked up by the Kuzbass and the Sakhalin Oblast, ready to turn to it in the Tomsk, Kaluga, Kursk Oblasts at a moment's notice, and they are looking closely in the Altai Territory.

How long will the new time constraints last? The Moscow Department of Healthcare refused to answer the official request of Novye Izvestia, redirecting us to the prosecutor's office. Therefore, one can only guess, but it looks more and more that access to hospitals for routine treatment will continue to be limited throughout the country. Are there any chances that the order will begin to be canceled everywhere by the decision of the prosecutor's office, as it was in Adygea? We doubt it. Having the example of Moscow, the regional authorities will have a free hand - the prosecutor's office is unlikely to be able to oppose anything now to the decisions, the flagship of which is the Moscow authorities.