A German court has rejected attempts by members of the country’s armed forces to challenge the government’s mandatory Wuhan virus vaccination policy for all troops.
The 1st Military Service Senate of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig determined that the government’s policy, which requires all troops to be fully vaccinated against the Wuhan virus, was legitimate, despite complaints by two Luftwaffe officers, who claimed the mandate violated their right to physical integrity.
The court did, however, leave possible challenges to mandates open in the future, saying the German Defence Ministry should re-examine the coronavirus situation before making booster doses of the vaccine mandatory, newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
“The diminishing of the dangers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the reduction in the effectiveness of the currently available vaccines are circumstances that make a renewed discretionary decision to order further booster vaccinations seem appropriate,” the court stated.
The German Ministry of Defence announced the mandate for soldiers last November as part of its General Service Regulation on vaccinations and other health measures. Those who refuse the vaccine can be subjected to disciplinary action.
Other countries have made similar moves regarding coronavirus vaccinations in their militaries, including the United States, which made vaccination mandatory for troops in August of last year and began discharging troops who refused the vaccine in February.
Earlier this year, the prospect of mandatory vaccinations for the entire general public in countries like Germany and Austria was not only being discussed by members of the government but had been planned by the government in Austria, with those who refused facing stiff fines.
However, late last month the Austrian government decided to scrap the general vaccine mandate law after the country’s Health Minister Johannes Rauch argued that the situation in the country had changed in recent months due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus.