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Finally enough vaccination doses - and nobody goes
Photo: Gregor Fischer / picture alliance / dpa
It is an annoying quality of this pandemic, on the one hand, to stretch like a never-ending fog and at the same time to produce new problems again and again in fairly rapid succession: While we were still talking about vaccine envy and vaccine pushers a few months ago, we are talking now about vaccination fatigue and how to persuade people to vaccinate. The vaccination rate in Germany is falling, and not because of the lack of vaccines, because 15 million doses are ready, only the people willing to vaccinate seem to be missing.
Depending on which news you take note of, you can come to different conclusions: When you hear that not even half of the people in Germany are vaccinated today and at the same time see media reports about demonstrations by anti-vaccination campaigners in several European cities, if one reads about the canceled Nena concert, maybe the penultimate SPIEGEL title (»Vaccination? Sometime. Maybe.«) and above all still has the voice of Armin Laschet in my ear (»I don't believe in mandatory vaccinations and don't believe in people either indirect pressure that they should be vaccinated «), then one can come to gloomy conclusions.
But: the vast majority of people in Germany are still in favor of vaccination. Of your own accord, without any compulsory vaccination. In the survey of the »COSMO - COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring« (from July 13/14) it says: »If everyone who is willing to actually get vaccinated, the vaccinated and those willing to vaccinate would result in one Vaccination rate among adults between 18 and 74 years of age of 83%. «Only a tenth of those questioned did not want to be vaccinated under any circumstances. That sounds less gloomy. The following groups are named for which an active dismantling of barriers is still required when vaccinating: »Younger people, men, people with children, lower education, migration background, people in whose household a language other than German is spoken, people in East Germany . "
If, however, it is the case that, for example, the level of education or lack of language skills prevent people from vaccinating, then the current picture of the optionally ignorant or lazy vaccination refusers and hesitant people is not complete - they may have, if they are still unsure, No weird, egoistic concept of freedom or no idea of solidarity, but simply too little information. You may find that incomprehensible if you are a highly educated, German-speaking person, but that seems to be the situation. And, worse: The focus on the arguments of staunch opponents of vaccination in the media could make the situation even worse. Firstly because of unnecessary division, secondly because of the wrong focus and thirdly because this sometimes unwillingly supports the propaganda of anti-vaccination campaigners.
For example, Deutsche Welle asked "Why are many not vaccinated?" And asked a couple who vehemently do not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The reason was a mixture of downplaying Corona, skepticism towards the media, science and the idea that you have a lower risk if you don't go to "any clubs". The two were given ample space to formulate their concerns and explain their supposed well-informedness, but were not asked a crucial question, namely whether they realize that they are fairly certain that they are opting for an infection.
We remember - in May Christian Drosten said: »This virus will become endemic, it will not go away. And anyone who now actively decides not to be vaccinated, for example, will inevitably become infected. «If that is true, and we can assume that, then you are only telling half the truth when you say that and why people oppose you Decide vaccination. The other half of the truth is that they choose to get infected. It is true that you can get infected despite being vaccinated, but the likelihood is much lower. Whenever one speaks of resolute anti-vaccination campaigns, one could instead speak of infection or infection proponents. The freedom that anti-vaccination campaigners love to talk about,is not just a freedom from vaccination, but also the freedom to infect yourself and others.
It's actually relatively simple.
Because you can't just be
against
something, you are always
for
something else and that is the accepted contagion, sooner or later.
So we don't necessarily need more sensitive portraits of vaccination opponents, who then find out that they're not all Nazis and esoteric freaks.
But measures with which vaccinations are brought to unsafe people and easily understandable information about what it means not to be vaccinated: that you will then be very sure to be infected and that you can suffer long-term consequences even if you do not belong to a risk group .
more on the subject
Scientists on incentives: "50 euros work, even against vaccine opponents" An interview by Isabel Metzger
»Vaccination happy hour«, meal vouchers, Biontech at Aldi: the federal and state governments are fighting desperately for herd immunity
If we now focus the debate on those who are already determined to refuse vaccinations, the now well-known phenomenon of »false balance« creeps in, which we already know from other debates on corona or climate issues: The position of a minority - Here: the ten percent of the tough opponents of vaccination - get so much space in the discussion that at some point it seems as if there are about half for and a half against and about the same number of arguments for and against vaccination. People who don't get vaccinated don't necessarily all believe in conspiracies. Nevertheless, one can learn something about dealing with vaccination opposition and skepticism by looking at research on conspiracy myths.Because the focus on determined opponents could have unintended effects.
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Nocun, Katharina, Lamberty, Pia
Fake facts: how conspiracy theories guide our thinking
Publisher: Quadriga
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Quadriga
Number of pages: 352
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In their book “Fake Facts”, Katharina Nocun and Pia Lamberty describe “that a single confrontation with conspiracy narratives is enough to make people more suspicious and fearful.” They cite a study in which people were given conspiracy narratives about vaccination and then read were asked whether their attitudes towards vaccination had changed. Result: Yes, they became more skeptical. Or this experiment on the subject of peer pressure and the perception of reality: The participants were given a very simple task. They got pictures with lines and should say which lines are the same length. Everyone could solve the task alone. However, if the test subjects were in a group in which other group members deliberately named a wrong line,many conformed to the majority opinion when it was obviously wrong.
That can be applied twice to the vaccination discussion. Firstly, of course: Those who tend to be in a vaccine-skeptical environment may bow to peer pressure and not be vaccinated. But also secondly: Anyone who moves in an environment in which the unvaccinated are still considered backward and selfish unteachable people, may also adopt this opinion - although studies speak against it. A study by the University Medical Center in Mainz at the beginning of July showed that people with a low socio-economic status had a lower vaccination rate. In an interview with “Freitag”, the doctor Benjamin Wachtler said:
“
Many of these people may not have had good experiences with government institutions or doctors, they may have encountered language barriers or discrimination, they have problems with residence permits or health insurance. Some have a legitimate distrust of the health system. Trust is not an individual question, but one of social experience. "
This means that it is not important now to insult people who have not been vaccinated as eloquently as possible or to discuss their supposed concept of freedom or solidarity, but rather to make them understand that now would be a very good time for a vaccination. Now that there are plenty of vaccination doses. Now that you can easily and quickly get appointments or even vaccinations without appointments and sometimes a burger on top. Now that the incidence is rising worryingly, especially among 15 to 34 year olds. Because if the vaccination speed continues to decrease and the fourth wave then strikes with full force in autumn, it may become more difficult to get a quick vaccination again. So we should focus less onwhy the few unteachable people absolutely do not want a vaccination or which restrictions could one day apply to them - but more on taking the insecure or skeptical with them. It's harder than scolding and splitting, but it helps better.