Mandatory Sanitary Pass: Is it Justified?

Due to the emergency nature of the pandemic, many anti-COVID-19 vaccines were rushed ahead into testing through emergency-use authorization, leading to questionable accuracy of data with regard to the short and long-term efficacy and safety and time span of immune protection of these vaccines. Several scientifically founded concerns, along with many questions, have been raised with no clear answers as to whether these vaccines will have the same efficacy across different populations, among distinct regions, and for any emerging new variants. These concerns are coupled with the variable levels of preventive, therapeutic, and protective measures, such as the recent imposition of the sanitary pass in some but not all countries. Given the lack of a universal policy in its application, the recently reported short-lived vaccine-induced protective immunity of a few months duration, the consequent growing number of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the most vaccinated countries, the equal spread of the Delta variant among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, the significantly lesser virulence of the Delta variant as reflected by the lower rate of hospitalization and death, and the recent admission by the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention of the poor specificity of the COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction diagnostic panel in detection of SARS-CoV-2, this scientifically unfounded sanitary pass, based on recently emerging data from the most vaccinated countries, not only seems obsolete but can also be regarded as a tool of indirect coercion, forcing vaccination on those who may be vaccine prudent, therefore jeopardizing the essence of an individual's freedom of choice that is guaranteed by all international laws. In the presence of these concerns and many unanswered questions, it becomes evident that the informed consent rather than the sanitary pass should be enforced and should become not only a necessity but also mandatory.