Europe pushes stricter vaccination rules

Plus: What employers need to know about vaccine mandates

Governments across Europe are turning up the heat on vaccine holdouts in an effort to relieve pressure on healthcare systems as the omicron variant surges. For example, unvaccinated people over age 60 in Greece will have to pay a monthly fine. Austria is making vaccination compulsory for everyone over age 18. And in France, unvaccinated people will be excluded from most public venues. That latter point is bad news for tennis star Novak Djokovic, who has not been vaccinated and was recently barred from playing in the Australian Open as a consequence. The new French law applies to visiting athletes, which may keep Djokovic from competing in the French Open. Speaking of traveling for sporting events, the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics will not be selling any spectator tickets after the city recorded its first case of omicron infection.  

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• Why big data didn’t deliver on its big promises to combat Covid-19 (Stat)

• The pandemic’s true death toll: millions more than official counts (Nature)