Mandatory vaccination is a priority, local health minister Victor Costache said at local news station Realitatea TV, adding that he supports such an idea.

In support of his statement, the minister referred to the period before the 1989 Revolution when vaccination was done in schools and was mandatory.

“Vaccination was a success in Romania, it was a successful program,” Costache said, according to local Edupedu.ro.

He also explained that, in his opinion, the first “strong anti-vaccination opinions” started to appear more than 10 years ago when the first vaccination campaign against cervical cancer was introduced, a campaign that was not a very good one.

“False side effects were presented, a whole hysteria was created, and an isolated case was enough to cast a shadow on everything related to a vaccination program,” Victor Costache also said. “Outbreaks of childhood diseases that were long gone began to appear. And so we, as you know very well, support mandatory vaccination.”

newsroom@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)