The "Criminal Shield": Criminal Liability for Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Giorgio Bolino; Gianpiero D'Antonio; Letizia Sorace; Nicola Di Fazio; Gianpietro Volonnino; Raffaele La Russa; Mauro Arcangeli; Paola Frati

doi:10.3390/healthcare11192661

The "Criminal Shield": Criminal Liability for Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Oct 1;11(19):2661. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11192661.

Authors

Giorgio Bolino¹, Gianpiero D'Antonio¹, Letizia Sorace¹, Nicola Di Fazio¹, Gianpietro Volonnino¹, Raffaele La Russa², Mauro Arcangeli³, Paola Frati¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic and Orthopedic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, 00128 Rome, Italy.
² Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy.
³ Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.

Abstract

The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic has had important economic, health, political, and jurisprudential implications all over the world. According to innovations already introduced by Law 24/2017, with Decree Law no. 44 of 1 April 2021 and the subsequent conversion law no. 71 of 2021, Italy is the only country in which ad hoc rules have been introduced to limit the professional liability of healthcare professionals during the health emergency. The "criminal shield" can be defined as the Legislator response to the extreme pressure on healthcare professionals during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination; ethical issues; liability.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.