Crown lock: there is an “illusion of protection”

secondAyern Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to do it, Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) also has plans, but what about the Chancellor? Unfortunately, in her press conference on the upcoming lockdown, Angela Merkel was only asked when she expected to receive the corona vaccines in Germany, but not whether she would be vaccinated immediately.

This is exactly what Söder, who like Spahn wants to set a good example, had recently suggested: that the chancellor and her entire cabinet should immediately be vaccinated publicly and effectively. The vaccination recommendation should not only be announced, but also incorporated, Söder said. To get the message across: the serum is safe, no one has to worry about the risks and side effects.

So far, Merkel has passed up this opportunity for such a confidence-building measure. In her last press conference, the Chancellor only announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam would approve the first vaccine for the EU no later than December 29. In January it should also start in Germany.

When it comes to the safety of the vaccine tested in the fast-track procedure, she fully relies on the concentrated medical expertise of the approval agency, Merkel said: “I trust the European Medicines Agency and the experience that governs it.” .

The only problem is that this trust is not shared by a clear majority of citizens. On the contrary, the willingness to get vaccinated against the crown has never been as low as now. According to a special study published late last week for “Covid-19 Snapshot Monitoring” (Cosmo) at the University of Leipzig, only one in two German citizens is “ready” or “quite ready” for injection.

In April it was 79 percent. The share of supporters of a state vaccination requirement fell from 73 percent to 37 percent during the same period. Researchers clearly identify skepticism towards the vaccines themselves as the main cause.

Everyone’s medical staff is particularly cautious

What is decisive for the lower approval is not an indirect protest against the government’s crown policy, even if approval for this has dropped significantly again in recent weeks. Most also do not believe that protection is not necessary because Covid-19 would be less dangerous than claimed.

Actually, it is a lack of confidence. And the announcement in November that the vaccines developed should be highly effective without causing side effects, based on current knowledge, failed to change the skepticism that has been growing steadily since April. Cosmo researchers concluded that confidence in safety is at its lowest level since the survey began and urgently recommend confidence-building measures such as additional information or a vaccination campaign.

But of all the doctors, nurses and other health professions who should have a particularly high interest in protecting themselves and others, the willingness to vaccinate is even below the national average. This clearly does not correspond to the expectation of all those surveyed, who in their vast majority were in favor of privileging the health professions in the allocation of the vaccine, not to risk groups such as the elderly or the needy care.

The Cosmo study doesn’t answer exactly what makes medical professionals so cautious, but apparently many are expecting some kind of free rider effect: 48 percent of doctors or nurses assumed that most of their coworkers would get vaccinated. Therefore, there may be hope that the actions of others will help you avoid vaccination. The sobering finding of the Cosmo study as a whole is: even with a perfectly effective vaccine, the current willingness to vaccinate would not be enough to stop the spread of the virus.

The results of Cosmo’s polls should give politicians pause, not just when it comes to vaccination. The joint research project, in which the University of Erfurt, the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Center for Health Education work together, has been asking citizens every two weeks since the start of the pandemic, for example, about how likely they think it is to get infected. , or if they consider Corona’s requirements to be appropriate or excessive.

The surprising finding: Despite recent increases in the number of infections and deaths, more and more people feel invulnerable, so to speak. In the most recent survey in the first week of December, only 27.4 percent of respondents described it as “extreme or fairly likely” to become infected. Four weeks earlier it was almost 33 percent. At the same time, the group of those who describe an infection as “extreme or unlikely” has increased. It went from just under 35 to 41 percent more recently.

“It seems to be getting used to it,” says Erfurt health communication professor Cornelia Betsch, whose team is collecting Cosmo’s data. In general, people are now used to the pandemic and there is a growing “illusion of protection”. On the one hand, this could have something to do with Corona’s restrictions themselves: “A decrease in potentially dangerous situations (due to partial lockdown) could be responsible for less fear and worry,” the study says. But Betsch also diagnosed “pandemic fatigue” weeks ago. “Those tired of the pandemic estimate that the risk of infection by themselves is lower, they are less informed and protect themselves less.”

According to Betsch, society slid into the pandemic and the prolonged fight against it with almost no preparation. While many politicians are trying to compare them to a marathon race and warn them to stay on the last meters, the health communicator prefers to compare them to a long-distance flight. Pilots, he says, are trained for years and specially trained to maintain full attention even on a long flight.

The constant reaction has to tire, in the case of Corona, for example, when a case occurs in the children’s school class, new requirements constantly arise in everyday life, the children suddenly need to be cared for again or there is a need to decide how to deal with vacations or family visits. . “Everybody’s sick of it,” says Betsch, and that’s normal too.

According to the researchers, the younger generation in particular is suffering more from the crisis than the older generation. According to Betsch, they lack the resilience, that is, the coping strategy to deal with setbacks. Older people have already weathered other crises and have gained experience and confidence that things will move on. For many young people, however, Corona is the first big shock, and that even in the supposedly “best moment of life.”

The question now is how you can persevere and not give in to unprotected fatigue, anger, or frustration. One consequence, as other polls from the past week also suggested, is apparently the growing desire for government action. According to the Cosmo study, before Sunday’s decision on the new corona restrictions, 60 percent of those polled were in favor that “a strict lockdown should be implemented as soon as possible” to significantly reduce the number of cases.

Only 29 percent refused, the rest were undecided. 53 percent also spoke in favor of restricting personal liberty rights. The proportion of respondents describing corona measures as “excessive”, on the other hand, has held steady at around 27 percent for weeks.