Germany has a higher than average number of anti-vaxxers compared to other European countries, due to a lack of trust in the healthcare system and unreliable sources of information. Despite the availability of modern vaccines that can prevent the spread of diseases such as measles, rubella, and chickenpox, vaccine hesitancy has led to an increase in new infections in recent years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified anti-vaxxers as a global threat, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent need for a vaccine.
According to Michael Baumann of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), “we are currently experiencing firsthand with the COVID-19 pandemic how crucial vaccinations are for our health.” However, Baumann notes that “this does not fit well with our years of observation that vaccines that are already available to prevent severe or even life-threatening diseases are not being used enough.” A recent survey of 15,000 parents with newborn to two-year-old children in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain revealed varying attitudes towards vaccinations. The study found that the lowest acceptance of vaccines was in France, while the highest was in Spain. In Germany, 88% of respondents had a positive attitude towards vaccinations.
The researchers attribute the differences in vaccine acceptance to the level of trust in the healthcare system in each country. Spain, which had the highest vaccine acceptance, also had the highest level of trust in the healthcare system. In addition to attitudes towards vaccinations, the study also examined the prevalence of vaccine refusal. In the UK, 3.2% of parents refuse to vaccinate their children against serious infectious diseases, while in Germany, 2.6% are strict anti-vaxxers. The study also found that only 73.1% of German parents support a general vaccination mandate, compared to 87% in Spain. The researchers also noted that the sources of information on vaccinations were important, with 37.2% of German and UK parents primarily relying on the internet for information, compared to only 15% in Spain and Italy. This reliance on unreliable sources of information has led to a false perception of vaccinations among some parents.
