The Yellow-Green Government and the Thorny Issue of Childhood Routine Vaccination

Abstract

During recent years, routine childhood vaccination has become a divisive and politically salient topic in Italy. During the spring of 2017, for example, the Lorenzin decree (No. 73 of 2017), which contained urgent provisions on vaccination prevention, divided public opinion and national political forces. In particular, both the League and the Five Star Movement immediately opposed the introduction of ten mandatory vaccinations. Moreover, the routine child immunization topic was once again at the centre of the political debate during the summer of 2018. The aim of this article is to present the contours of the problem relating to childhood vaccinations in Italy, and to reconstruct the current debate on mandatory vaccinations. It is not yet clear how the newly elected yellow-green government intends to tackle the problem: in the conclusions we will try to formulate some hypotheses.