Pathogen risks due to climate change: Review of the health and policy context and legal basis for the introduction of mandatory vaccination in The Netherlands

Abstract

The Earth's climate is changing rapidly, and as a result, pathogenic diseases will spread across the globe. This thesis aims to give a global view on these potential environmental impacts of climate change, in relation to (spreading) pathogenic diseases, and how these can cause big health risks for both humans and animals. By using different case studies, examples from different countries and existing literature, this thesis will give an evaluation of the importance of vaccination against these (uprising) pathogenic diseases for protecting global health. This literature-based thesis shows not only that the (positive) effects of vaccination against pathogenic diseases but also that amongst the Dutch population there is more hesitancy to get vaccinated. One of the findings in the thesis is that due to vaccination hesitancy the demand is now almost insufficient to obtain herd immunity, thus becoming a real health risk of the Dutch population. Therefore, this thesis discusses a legal solution for the decreasing heard immunity level amongst the Dutch population. Mainly by looking at what the possibilities are within the Dutch laws, the following research question for this thesis study was formed: ‘Would it be legally possible to make vaccination mandatory within the Dutch laws and regulations?’. The key findings in this literature-based thesis are, that the future arrival of pathogens due to climate change, will be a real scenario with major consequences for both human and animal health. In addition, available literature and studies show that vaccination will be the best (prevention) medicine for pathogenic risks. Thirdly, in order to combat the declining vaccination rate in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has legal starting points to make (types of) vaccinations mandatory. The last key finding is that, even though this thesis has shown that it is legally possible to make vaccinations mandatory, a larger study should be done into the ethical, operational and negative sides of making vaccinations (legally) mandatory