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Thuringian bratwurst in a roll
Photo:
arifoto UG / picture alliance / dpa / dpa-Zentralbild
The pandemic is taking a break - it seems. At least until the general election on September 26th. There is no other way I can explain to myself that not all available means, channels and possibilities are being used to convince the last people who are not sure about vaccination that vaccination protection makes sense. I am not talking about passionate objectors, it is also not about people who cannot be vaccinated, but about those who, due to insecurity, lack of access or other barriers, have not yet been won over, even though the vaccine is available is.
In a Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Commission, this still hesitant group in Germany is 13 percent. These people stated that they still want to be vaccinated "sometime in 2021" or "later", in contrast to 8 percent who "never" want to be vaccinated. These 13 percent, who are not yet convinced, are the last missing meters on the way to herd immunity, assuming that the 66 percent of those who have been vaccinated for the first time in Germany will also have the second vaccination.
According to the WHO, hesitation to vaccinate is one of the ten greatest threats to global health - and in contrast to the feeling that our everyday life is apparently increasingly normalizing, there is an acute urgency at this moment to achieve herd immunity, because we are running out of time: schools open, the next wave is rolling in, autumn is pushing us back into the narrow spaces - and as I said: until September 26th.
the parties are unlikely to adopt any further measures to contain the pandemic.
The fourth corona wave will most likely be one of the still unvaccinated and younger.
In political communication, I do not see this urgency translated convincingly or convincingly.
Rolling up your sleeves won't be enough
One has to acknowledge that a lot has been done at the federal and state levels. David Hasselhoff should bring us freedom again, there are mobile vaccination options to reach demographics and neighborhoods that are less aware of political communication; There are multilingual offers to encourage people in migrant communities to vaccinate, vaccination raves or stations in front of supermarkets.
At this point I would also like to speak out as an ardent defender of the bratwurst as an incentive! The sausage for vaccination was one of the brightest political ideas of the year. But what are the next steps to mobilize the vaccine, which have to be more precise due to the lack of time and also have to be tailored to the skepticism or convenience of those who remain unvaccinated? Sure, next week there will be an action week »Germany is rolling up its sleeves«, but is a mere awareness campaign enough to reach this 13 percent if you haven't really been convinced yet?
Indecision about vaccination, however, is not a German problem. Even if the vaccination rates are higher in other countries, there is now a certain saturation everywhere - only countries like Portugal with 78 percent or Spain with 74 percent are closer to herd immunity, because epidemiologically, every inconspicuous percent actually counts. A study published in January found that the biggest concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine were the lack of sufficient evidence of its safety and the distrust of its developers, scientists and manufacturers. Among the European countries, France is the country with the least confidence, with a total of 24 percent of the people there distrust the vaccine manufacturers.
And then there is a European country that seems extremely interesting from a sociological point of view: Ireland.
About 88 percent of Irish adults are fully vaccinated against Covid, including more than 71 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds.
One explanation for this is the lack of any right-wing extremist political forces in state politics, which is why there was no coordinated anti-vaccination movement.
It was also noteworthy that the decision to sort the vaccination sequence according to age, as in Germany by the way, was criticized by Irish teachers' unions because they wanted to be prioritized.
This conflict benefited the willingness to vaccinate, as it gave the false impression that there was too little vaccine for everyone and that one would therefore have to argue about it.
A question of trust
The caution that the National Vaccination Council in Ireland has shown towards AstraZeneca slowed down vaccination progress at the beginning, but it has ultimately also reduced the distrust of vaccination opponents.
A willingness to stop the administration of AstraZeneca until the side effects were further researched created confidence in the government's decisions.
That is perhaps one of the most important factors that slowed the German vaccination campaign: distrust.
Because there are five essential factors that influence willingness to vaccinate - the big Cs:
Confidence
,
Compliance
,
Convenience
,
Communication
,
Context
.
So trust, complacency, convenience, communication, and context.
Confidence in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines is critical. It has suffered significantly from the errors in the reporting around AstraZeneca. But it is also about trusting the motivations of policy makers responsible for making vaccines available. One speaks of complacency when the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases are assessed as too low for vaccination to be worthwhile. Of course, only education helps here. Convenience relates to practical and logistical barriers to vaccine access, such as cost or the availability of transport links. Communication summarizes the speeches and educational work, but also the communicative fight against misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Convenience has now been sufficiently established in Germany through easier appointments and easily accessible locations.
But perhaps the most important pillar, which was destabilized during the pandemic is most sensitive - by government mistakes, mismanagement and poor communication, is the first C,
Confidence
, confidence.
Whether it was the susceptibility to errors and the possibility of fraud in the vaccination centers, the whole rat tail around masks, the bohei around AstraZeneca, contradicting behavior on all levels when it comes to protecting children - none of this helped to allay justified fears with regard to the vaccination process.
Unfortunately, this is bad news at first, as this minus on the trust account can hardly be compensated for by autumn.
But it is also the answer to the question of what needs to be done better: transparency, honesty and much, much more incentives.
So I would like more bratwurst.