Greece has become the first European country to target an age group with a vaccination mandate.
Residents over the age of 60 who fail to book their first jab will face a monthly fine of about $150 Australian dollars.
Yanis Varoufakis has called the move a “draconian measure” and said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is “on confession of complete failure.”
“I had the Prime Minister in front of me in Parliament (two months ago) and… I said, ‘Imagine that you were to introduce a $200 fine every month for the unvaccinated… what effect is this going to have?,” the Greek MP tells ABC Breakfast.
“Yes, some people are going to be vaccinated but you are going to divide the nation and make the anti-vaxxers, those who are skeptical of vaccines… a feeling within them that they are being martyred for being concerned.”
“What does he do yesterday? He announces that which I asked him exactly not to do.”
There are about half a million people over the age of 60 in Greece who are yet to get vaccinated.
Around 63 percent of Greece’s population of 11 million are fully vaccinated.
“I can understand the necessity of getting the over-60s, the pensioners, vaccinated because they are the most vulnerable. It’s just that it doesn’t work,” he said.
“I am a firm supporter of the vaccination drive,” he said, “but you are not going to win this fight if you martyr those who are concerned instead of presenting them with the facts.”
Varoufakis says there is a correlation between mistrust in government and low vaccination rates.
“People don’t believe our government anymore and that is detrimental to the vaccination drive,” he said.
Source: ABC Radio
