Refusers of vaccinations will be added to the federal registry.

      The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation has published a draft resolution on the creation of a federal register of vaccinated citizens. Public discussion of the initiative will last until April 24. If approved, the register will be launched on September 1, 2028, as part of the Unified State Information System for Healthcare.

      According to the draft, the register will store data on Russians vaccinated according to the national calendar and epidemiological indications, on citizens with post-vaccination complications, with medical exemptions from vaccination, as well as those who refused to be vaccinated. Information must be transmitted to the system within one day after being entered into the medical institution's documentation. Deletion of records is not provided for.

      The operator of the register will be the Ministry of Health. Access to the database will be granted to Rospotrebnadzor, Roszdravnadzor, the Ministry of Digital Development, regional health authorities, and medical organizations. The latter will work with personalized data, while the others will work with anonymized data.

      The press service of the Ministry of Health explained to the newspaper "Kommersant" that data on those who refuse vaccinations will be used "in the development of plans for informational and explanatory work with citizens, as well as measures to increase the popularity and accessibility of vaccination events." The agency assured that being included in the register will not bring any negative consequences for citizens.

      Doctors and lawyers have already commented on the initiative. Infectious disease specialist Andrei Pozdnyakov linked refusals of vaccinations to an instinctive fear of the unknown and unreliable information. He also noted that some doctors themselves recommend that patients not get vaccinated, which exacerbates the problem.

      Lawyer Evgenia Ryzhkova reminded that legislation does not provide for liability for refusing vaccination; however, for certain categories of citizens (for example, those engaged in work with high epidemiological risk), vaccination is mandatory. In the event of refusal, such an employee must be suspended from work without pay. The lawyer also noted that in the event of a threat of infectious diseases, new restrictions may be introduced for those refusing vaccinations.

      Biologist Antonina Oblasova, director of the ANO "Collective Immunity," called the creation of the register an important initiative that will complicate life for those who forge vaccination certificates. Moreover, according to her, the register is important for analytics: for example, it will allow comparing the vaccination rates of patients among different doctors. It will also help predict disease outbreaks. The expert added that the main thing is for the information in the register to be accurate, not "fabricated."