The European Union this week exceeded 67% in the vaccination rate of the adult population and is about to reach the 70% target which had been set for late summer. The resounding success of vaccination campaigns in most of Europe contrasts with the slow pace of some club members and with the presence of large population pockets that resist puncture. As of August 20, the vaccination rate ranged from 19% in Bulgaria to 94.1% in Malta, two speeds in the rate of protection that complicate the exit from the pandemic and threaten to divide Europe into blocks with difficulties of mobility with each other. People not vaccinated or who have been inoculated with injections not recognized by the European Medicines Agency, as is the case of Hungary (where almost four million Chinese and Russian doses have been administered), they face increasing difficulties in getting around and even participating in certain social events because the vaccination certificate or negative test is becoming ubiquitous.
The delay in some parts of the continent is more alarming once specialists have found that vaccination coverage much higher than expected will be needed to try to stop the circulation of the virus. The European division of the WHO plans to organize a meeting in the coming days with the national health authorities to study measures to improve the acceptance of the vaccine and reduce the gap in the vaccination rate. And a working group will be established with the United States, where the problem of resistance to puncture is considerable, to try to stop the disinformation campaigns that raise doubts about vaccines.
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Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO director for Europe, warns that “the differences [en la tasa de vacunación] they are a matter that matters ”. “As I have said from the beginning, no one will be safe until we all are”. Kluge warns that the gap between the 53 countries in his area (which covers the entire continent) is even greater than in the EU: “with an average vaccination of around 38% for two doses and 47% for one, it is of course the safety net does not exist yet ”.
In nine of the 27 countries of the Union, including Spain, the threshold of 70% has already been exceeded, indicate data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, according to its acronym in English). But the gap between EU countries is wide, even between regions of the same country, and they have become increasingly evident as vaccination campaigns have reached cruising speed. The European Commission has stepped up contacts with lagging countries in recent weeks and has offered their cooperation to carry out information campaigns to clear up doubts of the most reluctant population. “But it is a national competition and it is up to the governments to promote vaccination,” they resign from the community body.
On August 20, the range in the administration of a dose opened from 20.8% of the adult population in Bulgaria to 96.8% in Malta, according to ECDC data. For the entire pattern, the difference is just as significant: from 19% to 94.1% between the same two countries.
The same fossa is observed in all parameters, from the percentage of the total population vaccinated to that of people over 80 years of age or that of health and care personnel in nursing homes. The data shows a Europe at two speeds, with a curtain of immunity dividing the continent between east and west.
Community sources acknowledge that the greatest concern in this final stretch of the first vaccination campaigns is that new variants appear that aggravate the number of infections, hospitalizations and, in the most tragic cases, deaths. A risk of mutation of the virus that, according to experts, can materialize in places where vaccination rates are lower because the virus circulates with greater intensity.
The danger is evident outside of Europe, where there are countries with hardly any access to vaccines yet. But also within the EU, where vaccination rates remain very low in some countries. The differences could trigger a new reappearance of internal borders, as at the beginning of the pandemic, if the waves this autumn or winter seriously deteriorate the epidemiological situation in the least protected countries.
In the eastern part of the EU, six countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia) have vaccinated less than 50% of the adult population. And in terms of total population, the list doubles to include Finland, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. In countries where the campaign had advanced strongly, such as Greece and especially Hungary, the pace has stagnated and seems to have encountered a level of resistance in the population that is difficult to overcome.
The differences are also evident within Germany, the most populous country in the Union, with the same east-west divide. Vaccination rates are generally highest in the western part, where all countries they exceed 55% of the total vaccinated population. In the former East German territories the rates are lower and fall to 50% in Saxony or 53% in Brandenburg, two of the countries bordering Poland.
Distrust of public opinion
The European director of the WHO attributes the diversity of vaccine coverage in the old continent to “the political and technical heterogeneity of public health systems.” It also points out that “there is no single solution that works for all countries in a crisis so determined by local factors like this one.” Kluge considers it “imperative to promote cohesion” in terms of vaccination, not only between EU countries but throughout the European area of the agency, which includes up to 53 countries. Kluge recommends, among other measures, “to continue and more aggressively intensify the alert campaigns to reduce doubts about vaccines, without losing empathy with the people for whom injecting a medical product that has been developed so quickly constitutes a true dilemma”.
Community sources attribute the disparity in vaccination ratios to very diverse factors, from the slow start in some countries to the purchase options exercised within the joint European acquisition program, which has given access to vaccines to all EU partners in the same conditions and at the same price. Some countries, such as Latvia, bet almost exclusively on the cheapest vaccine available, AstraZeneca, in which there have been serious supply failures.
Some of the sources consulted also point to the distrust of public opinion towards their rulers as the origin of the scarce willingness to be vaccinated, a factor that seems relevant in countries such as Bulgaria or Romania. The problem already existed before covid-19 and was causing a drop, described by the Commission as “dramatic” in some cases, in the rate of administration of certain vaccines. In Bulgaria, according to the Commission’s reports, not even the introduction of sanctions has prevented the fall in the coverage of compulsory vaccines for children such as measles, hepatitis B or diphtheria.
Another common factor that affects both eastern and western countries is disinformation campaigns, according to the European Commission. In France, for example, the flu vaccination rate has fallen for a decade and in 2019 it was already 25 percentage points below the threshold set by the WHO (75%).
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