In July 2020, the German Medical Journal published an article that caught my attention (Future COVID-19 Vaccination – Citizens are Afraid of Side Effects). According to this, the willingness of citizens in Europe to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 as soon as the vaccine is available has significantly decreased in recent months.
The willingness to vaccinate against the coronavirus fell in the surveyed countries from 74 percent in April to 68 percent two months later. The largest decreases were found in Italy with minus 13 percent and Germany with minus nine percent. Thus, one in five in Germany indicates that they do not want to get vaccinated against Corona – the main reason for this is the fear of the side effects of immunization.
Against the background that we all long for normality again and a vaccination will restore this normality, the skepticism of so many people towards a COVID-19 vaccination is worrying – especially because the number of COVID-19 vaccine skeptics is so much greater than the number of people who fundamentally reject vaccinations.
In most European countries, radical vaccine opponents represent a relatively small group of individuals – and of this minority, only a few are actively engaged in not only refusing the vaccine for themselves or their children, friends and family, but also in trying to prevent the general public from getting vaccinated and undermining public health measures. The argument pattern of vaccine opponents is relatively uniform and predictable: scientific evidence contradicting their arguments is rejected, only results that seem to confirm their beliefs are considered (confirmation bias). Open discussions are avoided, instead opposing opinions are censored – and often personal insults and legal measures are used to silence representatives of the scientific consensus. (A pattern that is also encountered in the current appearance of the “Corona contrarians”).
People who radically reject vaccines are a heterogeneous group with different reasons for their behavior. In most cases, it is futile to try to change their attitude through scientific arguments and findings. A major problem, however, is that this very small group of radical vaccine opponents has a negative influence on a relatively large group of individuals who do not fundamentally reject vaccinations but are skeptical – and this skepticism results primarily from a high degree of uncertainty. These people, who are ultimately ambivalent about vaccination, are open to arguments.
Unfortunately, the appearance of radical vaccine opponents mainly serves these undecided individuals – and especially in times of great uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the voices of the radical vaccine opponents are being heard. This is due to the fact that people tend to give more credence to negative information than to positive information. The ability to think rationally is often and successfully destroyed by narratives – an emotional story about a child’s vaccine damage can have a greater impact than conveying data on the low statistical evidence of vaccine damage in the general population. And finally, people like to focus on information that confirms their personal beliefs instead of questioning them. This is likely the reason why so unexpectedly many fellow citizens are critical of a possible COVID-19 vaccination.
For this reason, the next posts in the MS-Docblog will deal with the topic of “vaccination”. Counter-speech is extremely important in these times and knowledge protects against uncertainty. The articles are meant to inform undecided individuals and convince skeptics. Above all, however, the knowledge of those who are open to vaccinations should be strengthened. They should thus be empowered to respond and be able to convince skeptics themselves.
This is of great importance, because there are many people who would like to protect themselves from COVID-19 through vaccination, but cannot be vaccinated due to a basic illness or the intake of certain medications. In order to effectively protect these people, we need not only people who behave in solidarity by respecting the Corona rules, but also a large number of people who get vaccinated – also to protect those who cannot do it themselves.
