When the vaccine was still rare, the vaccination campaign in Germany got off to a good start. At the beginning of June, well over 45 percent of people in Germany had already received a first vaccination, and more than 20 percent had already received a second vaccination. Due to the positive development of the vaccination campaign, the originally specified vaccination sequence could be canceled.
The vaccination campaign in Portugal in early summer was similarly ambitious. At that time, the two EU countries were still tied in terms of vaccination numbers.
But unlike in Germany, Portugal did not get vaccinated after the initial successes: In September 2021, the country reported the highest vaccination rate in the world, and Portugal is now in second place after the United Arab Emirates.
98 percent of the Portuguese population over twelve years of age is now fully vaccinated – without compulsion and new regulations such as in Italy. On October 1, the country ended its “Estado de Alerto” (alarm state) and lifted many restrictions. Restaurants and hotels as well as small shops can be entered without a mask again. Even discos and clubs started operating again.
In Germany just over 65 percent of the total population are vaccinated. Too few to contain the infection process sustainably or even to be able to think about lifting valid restrictions such as the mask requirement.
Portugal was particularly hard hit by the pandemic
While the fourth wave has reached Germany and the number of infections is rising again, people’s willingness to vaccinate is stagnating. The number of new infections of around 600 per day in Portugal, on the other hand, is at a low level. The situation in the hospitals there is also relaxed.
In Germany, the number of new infections is meanwhile at a 7-day average of over 8000. Even intensive cases have increased again since August, more and more sick people end up in the intensive care units, the majority of them are not vaccinated.
The fact that vaccination readiness in Germany lags far behind that in Portugal could possibly be related to the fact that Portugal was hit particularly hard by the pandemic: At the beginning of the year, the country experienced one of the worst waves of Covid 19 infections and mortality in the world.
In January and February, the corona infection situation in Portugal got completely out of control, with far-reaching restrictions as a result. Because of the massively overburdened hospitals, even the German armed forces had to help out on site. In a week at the end of January 2,000 people died of Covid – in a country with only ten million inhabitants. In June, the capital Lisbon was temporarily cordoned off.
Open communication about the vaccination process
Because of the traumatic experiences, the Portuguese are now pulling together, said the nationwide vaccination coordinator Henrique de Gouveia e Melo in an interview with ZDF. “We communicated very actively and openly about the vaccination process. That was very important and created a sense of community. We are not selfish here, we are not afraid of vaccinations. “
Part of the success may also be that the Rear Admiral of the Navy, who used to command frigates and submarines, took over the coordination of the national vaccination campaign from a civilian in February. By the time Gouveia e Melo appeared on the scene, the vaccination campaign had only made slow progress in Portugal.
Under Gouveia e Melo, Portugal organized its vaccination campaign, unlike Germany, like a general staff. He did without small health centers and instead opted for large sports facilities. Soldiers were used as guinea pigs in an army hospital to find out the fastest way to set up the vaccination route. From then on, vaccinations were carried out as if on an assembly line, according to Gouveia e Melo.
In addition, every citizen of the country was personally invited to be vaccinated at least three times. If the person did not respond, they would be contacted and reminded over and over again.
E Melo also used a military term: “I made it clear to the population that we are at war against the virus and must join forces to win against it and protect our children from it,” said the vaccination coordinator of the “world”.
Great confidence in the health system
The decisive factor for the high willingness to vaccinate, however, is also likely to be the great confidence that the Portuguese have in their very new health system. It was not until the 1970s, after the revolution, that a state health system was introduced on the Iberian Peninsula. Child mortality was very high at the time, and many parents lost daughters and sons to measles and other childhood diseases. Since the introduction of vaccinations back then, there have hardly been any doubters in Portugal.
Therefore, even before Covid, the vaccination rate for measles, rubella and mumps was 95 percent higher than almost anywhere in the EU. Only three percent of the Portuguese describe themselves as so-called vaccination refusals.
The positive attitude of the Portuguese towards vaccinations is supported by surveys. According to the latest Eurobarometer, 87 percent of Portuguese people consider the benefits of vaccinations to outweigh the possible risks; nowhere else in Europe are there so many.
A clear majority even consider vaccination to be a “civic duty”. As in Spain, scientists also consider the sense of social and family responsibility to be an important reason for this – in no other country are as many organs donated as in Spain, for example.
Vaccination also plays a much larger social role in Portugal than in Germany. In this way, the population is regularly reminded of pending vaccinations for children. A valid vaccination certificate must be presented when registering in schools, as well as when applying for a driver’s license or applying for jobs in the public sector.
“The acceptance of vaccines is very high here”
In Portugal there is an environment that makes vaccinations easier and offers strong incentives, said the sociologist Manuel Ivone da Cunha from the University of Minho in northern Portugal in an interview with “Welt”. The camp of vaccination skeptics and vaccination refusals is also much smaller than in other European countries. “The acceptance of vaccines is very high here,” says da Cunha.
In Germany the situation is different, the vaccination skepticism is much greater. A Cosmo study (Covid-Snapshot-Monitoring), in which, among others, the University of Erfurt, the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Center for Health Education were involved, showed that an assumed disproportion between the safety and benefits of the vaccination resulted in many Germans discourages getting vaccinated.
75 percent of those questioned stated that they considered a vaccination unnecessary if many others were vaccinated, 72 percent stated that the benefit-risk assessment was not in favor of the vaccination. 40 percent would consider the vaccine unsafe. Those involved argued primarily with insufficient research, a supposedly too fast approval and possible unknown long-term consequences.
I am a technology author with 8 years of experience in journalism. My writing covers the latest technology advancements and trends, drawing on my expertise in news journalism and social media platforms. I have contributed to major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
