Medical Liability of the Vaccinating Doctor: Comparing Policies in European Union Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exhausted healthcare systems around the world,
including European Union countries, with healthcare workers at the frontline. Therefore, new
health laws and policies have been introduced at the national level in order to offer greater legal
protection for health workers. Since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination, it has led to the
development of specific laws to define the compulsoriness for particular categories. This review
aimed to evaluate the system of medical liability, focusing on the ten countries of the European
Union with the highest rate of vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2. A country-by-country
analysis was conducted on the different medical liability systems of individual professionals, in
general, and with specific focus on the vaccinating doctors. Additional search was conducted to
investigate which European states have introduced specific policies in this field, to identify the
implementation of any new laws alongside the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, and to assess
which countries have adopted the European Digital COVID Certificate and funded specific
compensation programs for COVID-19 vaccination. Our results highlight an extremely fragmented
European scenario; therefore, this work could be a starting point to define a common approach for
medical liability and related policies in the COVID-19 pandemic.