Head of the Ministry of Health Mikhail Murashko signed an order* with a list of medical contraindications for vaccination against COVID-19. This document will not only untie the hands of physicians in making decisions on medical exemptions, but most importantly, it will lead to standardization and an unambiguous interpretation of the conditions in which it is possible or not to recommend vaccination against COVID-19 to patients.

Back in November last year, Viсtor Dmitriev, Chairman of the Public Council under Roszdravnadzor, drew attention at the zero hearings in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation to the problems of medical withdrawals faced by patients with chronic autoimmune diseases, comparing them with the problem of prescribing narcotic painkillers for cancer patients.

“Doctors were waiting for this order, patients were waiting, society was waiting. The lack of QR codes among unvaccinated patients with chronic diseases led to the restriction of their civil rights. For example, in Moscow, pensioners with chronic diseases without QR codes have lost the opportunity to travel for free on public transport. And the doctors did not dare to give them medical withdrawal, because contraindications were not specific and very vague,” Victor Dmitriev commented on the order.

Now the order clearly defines contraindications for use. So the EpiVacCorona vaccine is contraindicated for people with oncological diseases, and for healthy people, vaccination is contraindicated during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

*The document can be found on the website of the Public Council of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor).