Joksimović: Constitutional Court’s Public Hearing on Vaccination “Disappointing” from Medical Standpoint — Pediatricians Not Invited

Dr. Milko Joksimović, pharmacovigilance advisor at the Institute for Medicines of Montenegro and an epidemiologist with 12 years of experience in the field of immunization, assessed the public hearing organized by the Constitutional Court on mandatory vaccination as a condition for children’s enrollment in kindergartens as “undoubtedly disappointing” from a medical standpoint. The reason, according to him, is that no primary-care pediatrician had a representative at the hearing — with the exception of one epidemiologist speaking on behalf of UNICEF.

Joksimović said the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) supported immunization while respecting the sovereignty of the country’s health system, whereas he criticized UNICEF’s approach as “too distant” and as interference in Montenegro’s domestic health policy.

He also presented concrete figures on vaccination coverage progress: among children born up to 2024, coverage rose from 13.2% to 34.4% in just over a month; among children born in 2023, from 35.3% to 55.2%; while more than three-quarters of parents of children born in 2021 have fulfilled the legal obligation.

Joksimović warned that if the Constitutional Court decides to abolish the vaccination mandate, this would be a “heavy blow” to the country’s vaccination system and would open the door to dangerous diseases.

On the other hand, pediatrician Ivana Lakićević from the Health Center in Podgorica complained that no pediatrician had been invited to the hearing. She said parents’ biggest fear remains the alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism — a claim not proven by large scientific studies; the newest American study from July 2026, conducted on over 2.5 million children, confirmed this again.

Source: RTCG