In December 2020, the great vaccination operation against Covid 19 began all over Europe. After 10 months, more than 70% of the European population received the second dose. And according to recent studies, almost half of Europeans are in favor of compulsory vaccination. But be careful, because there are situations in which mistrust is still high.

The start

In December last year, with the EU vaccines strategy, the European Union allocated 2.7 billion to start mass vaccination in member countries. Immediately after he granted authorization for AstraZeneca, BioNTech and Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (and then Johnson & Johnson a few months later), all European states started vaccinating. At the end of September 2021, 72.6% of adults had completed the vaccination cycle.

The survey

In May Eurobameter carried out a survey on citizens' opinions about the vaccine and the strategy used in the campaign at national and EU level: most of the Europeans who participated said they were in favor of accepting the anti-Covid vaccine, believing (in 76% of cases) that the benefits are greater than the risks.

A survey that a few days ago was taken up by the Openpolis Foundation which then carried out an interesting study on this topic. "According to the data collected by the Eurobarometer, 69% of the EU population was part of the so-called high vaccine acceptance category, that is the set of those who have already been vaccinated and those who want to get vaccinated as soon as possible - the experts point out - The grade furthermore, it does not show differences in terms of gender, but is slightly influenced by age (among citizens over 55, 6% refuse the vaccine, against 13% between 25 and 39 years) and, to some extent, from the employment situation. The acceptance rate falls from 69% among the employed to 59% among the unemployed. There is also a gap between urban and rural inhabitants. Of the former, only 8% declare that they do not want to be vaccinated, against 13% of the latter ».

Obviously, then, those who willingly accept the anti Covid vaccine are those who have previously been vaccinated against other diseases, in both childhood or adulthood. In the group of the most inclined to get vaccinated, 92% had been vaccinated in the past, a figure that drops to 70% among those who instead declare that they do not want to be vaccinated against Covid.

The obligation

The issue that has been debated in Italy for a few weeks, the obligation to vaccinate, is also the one prevalent in many other European countries. "In Portugal, 62% of citizens declared themselves in favor of compulsory vaccination, compared to 31% (half) in Bulgaria, the country characterized by the greatest skepticism towards vaccines - explain from Openpolis - As regards the European average , this stands at 46%, 26 percentage points lower than Italy (60%), the second country in Europe with the highest share of people in favor of the compulsory vaccine ». In reality, there are only nine EU countries in which more than half of the inhabitants are in favor of compulsory vaccination: after Portugal and Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Malta, Finland and Ireland.

No vax

Another chapter of the survey concerns the population that has decided not to undergo the vaccination.

«Overall in the European Union the share of those who declare they have no intention of vaccinating themselves against Covid is quite low. We are talking about 9% of the total population, 6% of Italians - reads the Foundation's report - Most citizens who hesitate to get vaccinated declare that they do so because the vaccine has not, in their opinion, been sufficiently tested (85%) or for fear of potential side effects (82%), while 60% believe that there has been excessive alarmism on the risks associated with Covid ».

The campaign in Europe

Every day there are data, numbers and percentages on the vaccination campaign in Italy, but how is it going in the other states? The data on the doses administered in European countries would seem to be in line with those on the vaccine requirement. And so Portugal is the state that has reached the highest quotas of vaccinated citizens. 89% of the Portuguese population has in fact had the second dose. “Similar figures, albeit slightly higher, are also recorded in Ireland (90.7%) and Malta (90%). However, it should be emphasized that the variation in the quotas of people who have completed the vaccination cycle clearly also depends on the organization of the campaign country by country and not only on the personal decisions of citizens - reads the report - Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia are the countries with the lowest shares of people who have completed the vaccination cycle, respectively 22%, 33% and 49%. Latvia, in particular, according to the results of the Eurobarometer, is the country in which fewer people declare that they consider vaccines safe because they are produced in the EU, and it is also the state with the lowest share of citizens who believe that the benefits of vaccines are greater. with respect to risks (54%) ".

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