Experts are categorical when SAM starts a new vaccination campaign: don’t consider people stupid

About Delphi spoke with Arijus Katauskas, public relations expert, senior partner at Nova Media, and Bernaras Ivanovs, political scientist at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU).

Katauskas: people cannot be absolute

According to A. Katauskas, politicians who do not treat people who do not vaccinate equally are wrong.

“Those people who think that people who do not get vaccinated, people who do before vaccines are all the same, they are brutally wrong. People are different and don’t get vaccinated for very different reasons. The worst thing you can do in the hope of convincing them is leveling them out.

There are those who actively promote action against vaccination, sabotage vaccination: there is one thing here. The second thing is people who are afraid of something, do not know it, etc. The third is the people who convince other people to wait. Here you can continue indefinitely, there are many target audiences, “said the expert.

Different arguments apply to all groups of people, A. Katauskas continued.

“When I don’t know in recent days who launched a big campaign that is on the verge of intimidating people who don’t get vaccinated, we get hooked and the audience we can talk to can try to persuade them. There is a great danger in this place, when we level them all we will deduce them with all the words and suddenly they will realize that certain groups of society are being rejected ”, said the communication specialist.

After that, according to A. Katauskas, that group of people can begin to listen to the opposite arguments, those people who consciously and maliciously urge to ignore vaccines.

“Instead of talking and explaining to them, separated from the others, we come to the conclusion that they are stupid. How will a person who is not vaccinated for various reasons feel now that he is called a fool for it without figuring out what the reasons are for him? Of course, focus, look for the same ones that are equally drawn. (…) It is impossible to start a debate if you call something stupid. In terms of communication, it can be great. “pravalas“, – stressed the expert.

He also stressed that communication works by transmitting not with words but with actions.

“When it is shown that those who have been vaccinated, who protect themselves, society and other members, can obtain certain benefits that, for objective reasons, cannot be enjoyed by someone who could potentially infect or infect others, that of course it would work. I think it would work, but it cannot be taken out of context, it should be in the common mass of all actions, ”said A. Katauskas.

Therefore, he noted, extremes in both directions are detrimental.

“It just came to our knowledge then. 40 percent. Vaccinated, about 50 percent. Unvaccinated. In fact, we divide society into two parts. There are no Kiguolis and here a hundred followers, there are many people here who have their own stories. personal with which to work ”, emphasized the expert in public relations.

He said that the example of politicians will not affect the whole society: each influential person can influence certain groups of people.

“There are no one-size-fits-all, acceptable, and similar people. Every politician, public figure, famous person in a given audience is the one who can make a difference. To see a politician go away and take over all of Lithuania … This is not the case. Clearly, there are cases like that of the President of the Republic with his qualifications. The question is why the politician of such height did not communicate with such clarity that they are going to vaccinate you ”, pointed A. Katauskas.

The expert identified vaccination policy and communication as a tool for politicians to wage wars.

“Our politicians have turned it into an object of mutual politicking, of war. The second thing was not powerful enough to put them on a table. Actually, this could only be done by the president, but for some reason the president decided not to. Why? “Mysticism,” added A. Katauskas.

Ivanov: this is a problem of the relationship between society and government

At the time, Vytautas University political scientist Magnus Bernaras Ivanov shared the view that the accusation by some politicians that vaccination is stalled by the number of people who do not want to be vaccinated is just an attempt to transfer responsibility to others.

“This is a myth about antivirals in Lithuania, a great myth. There are, of course, anti-Mexicans, like everywhere else, but it is a rather small group if we talk about so super fierce, ideological, mobilized. Most are still fatalistic, mythological thinking people, from the series, as God will decide. This is a recurrence of a purely Soviet legacy and that group is quite inert, “explained Ivanov.

The biggest problem, however, he said, is the general attitude of the people towards power.

“Where is the problem? – The problem is the attitude of the general public towards power, distrust of power. This is very common in post-Soviet states. (…) It’s one thing when you tolerate a thief in power, Another thing is when you are already flying towards your body. You do not trust the government, you know that they are “murderers” and they are still flying towards your body. That communication is broken by social exclusion, poverty, corruption, bad education, inertia and the syndrome of post-Soviet society, “said the political scientist.

Without a sincere connection between government and society, Ivanov continued, it is becoming difficult to resolve crises.

“It just came to our attention then. The government just can’t run the information campaign properly,” he said.

However, Ivanov argued that the vaccination situation and statistics should not be so dramatized.

“The situation does not need to be dramatized or evaluated in a very tragic way; it is not so bad, they shed their hair unnecessarily. In Switzerland, 44% are now fully vaccinated, and in Lithuania, it seems to me, 42%. Where Switzerland and where Lithuania. Looking at it, there is no catastrophe, but the government is escalating because there are vaccines, there is money for it and we have a quite annoying situation “, said the expert from the University Vytautas Magnus.

The public, Ivanov also explained, does not accept politicians as sincere and concerned about the public interest, and that relationship with the government, he said, generally takes more than a year. The political scientist called it a circle of trust.

“It’s not worth dramatizing, but thinking about it is really important. To society itself,” added B. Ivanov.

Politicians have different points of view

There have been many comments in the public sphere about various statements by politicians about vaccination and people who have not been vaccinated. Rasa Juknevičienė MEP urged people not to communicate with those who do not vaccinate, and TS-LKD Honorary President Professor Vytautas Landsbergis said that the call not to vaccinate should be recognized as malicious activity.

Opponents of the vaccine also have a huge influence on the COVID-19 call. Here, the leader of the Labor Party, Viktor Uspaskich, does not hide his skeptical stance on vaccines, urged not to vote for such politicians at all and even announced the sale of water that protects against the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and Health Minister Arūnas Dulkys have recently stated several times that new potential pandemic management measures are likely to apply to people who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The opposition is also divided on this issue. Some argue that encouraging people to get vaccinated is a “cake and stick” principle, while others say there should be no mandatory vaccination and that authorities should seek other ways to expand vaccination.

The Ministry of Health launches a new advertising campaign to change the opinion of those who have not decided on a vaccine against the coronavirus, as announced by the BNS.