Euractiv: COVID-19 expert says still vital to get the jab
The below is an excerpt from a Euractiv article.
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Fewer than 10% of eligible people in the EU get vaccinated against Covid-19
While the public and healthcare providers continue to treat seasonal flu seriously, concern about Covid-19 has waned, a trend reflected in vaccination rates. Across the bloc, nearly half of people aged 65 and over receive the influenza vaccine, yet fewer than 10 % of those eligible choose to get the Covid-19 shot.
A coalition of experts, physicians and patient advocacy groups, supported by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, is seeking to draw attention to what they describe as missed public-health gains from low Covid-19 vaccination uptake. The group gathered recently in Brussels to make their case. Among them was Leif Erik Sander, a vaccine researcher and director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, who also served on the federal government’s expert advisory panel during the pandemic.
We sat down to talk about pandemic fatigue, longevity wins, and the next pandemic.
Euractiv: You came to Brussels to remind us to take the risks of Covid-19 infections more seriously. Why does Europe need such a nudge?
Sander: There’s a big discrepancy between the uptake of seasonal flu vaccines and Covid-19 vaccines, partly due to pandemic fatigue. People don’t want to talk about Covid-19 anymore, including media and medical professionals. So we need to restart the conversation, because it’s simply no longer on people’s minds.
On whose mind should it be?
Vulnerable populations – older people and those with pre‑existing conditions such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease or cancer – should be aware that vaccination is recommended for them. Healthcare providers also need to be more active in informing their patients. Simply put, anyone who gets a flu shot should also get a Covid-19 vaccination.
How deadly is Covid-19 nowadays?
The risk of dying has dropped dramatically, probably around 20‑fold since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2022–23, Covid-19 was still more deadly and caused more hospitalisations per infection than flu. Now they’re similar, but that still means many deaths and significant pressure on the healthcare system, including from secondary complications.
Such as?
Patients who acquire Covid-19, flu or other respiratory infections have an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke or heart attacks, all reasons to get vaccinated. People buy expensive supplements, work out, and do many other things to stay healthy and live long. A yearly vaccination is a comparatively simple measure.
People rarely get tested for Covid-19 nowadays. Is that a problem?
We’re not without data. There are surveillance or sentinel studies that test samples and extrapolate overall infection numbers. But it does affect individuals and physicians when they don’t see much Covid-19, because people think they no longer need to get tested or vaccinated.
As I understand it, it is also a problem in terms of visibility that Covid-19 trickles through the year.
Exactly. It’s not one big peak like influenza. If you talk to intensive‑care staff, who are always busy with flu in winter, they’ll say: “We hardly see Covid-19 anymore.” And that’s true; patients nowadays rarely become so critically ill that they die immediately from pneumonia in the hospital. Instead, they tend to be older, have pre‑existing conditions, maybe cancer, and the additional infection worsens this condition so much that they often don’t survive. Or they die of a heart attack as a secondary effect of Covid-19 that doesn’t show up in statistics.
How big is the influence of misinformation on mRNA vaccination on the actual hesitancy?
Vaccination hesitancy is as old as vaccination itself. However, parts of the political spectrum amplify certain narratives that increase mistrust, and it’s hard for me to understand why one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs is being discredited, even though people saw firsthand that it helped end a devastating pandemic. Overall trust in vaccines has declined, and interest from companies developing them hasn’t increased much.
So why not campaign more?
This is what we ask from politicians. Respiratory infections cause massive economic losses in the EU – more than €100 billion every year – with Covid-19 being a main driver. Every euro spent on a vaccination campaign returns up to 19-fold through fewer sick days, lower health‑care use and fewer complications. But there’s unfortunately little glory in prevention, even though the return on investment is high.
Are we prepared for the next pandemic?
We’re in a much better place in terms of having vaccines ready, and we might be faster in adapting them. Many people have learned how to protect themselves, wearing masks and so on. Yet the inflammatory debates and targeted misinformation will return, and a segment of the population is already opposed to such measures, so containing an outbreak would be much harder.