Czechs will need to be 'persuaded' to take COVID vaccine, says journalist Martin Ehl

The EU will provide enough COVID-19 vaccines for Czech residents, but the Czech government will still need to distribute them and manage to convince at least 60 percent of Czechs to get vaccinated, Martin Ehl wrote in the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) on Thursday.

The vaccine for Czechs will be approved by bodies such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA), whose honesty and impartiality are beyond any doubt. Furthermore, it will be delivered in sufficient quantity thanks to EU politicians, researchers, and businessmen from democratic countries.

Thus, only two issues remain: to think up a way of distributing it and to convince nearly 60 percent of the Czech population to get vaccinated so that it is efficient in collective protection, Ehl writes.

While many countries have been solving vaccine distribution schemes for weeks, building special facilities and capacities for it, the Czech government is allegedly working merely on a national strategy and its approval. Due to storage requirements and a two-phase application of the vaccine, it cannot be as slapdash as sending the Chinese protective equipment to GPs in the spring, Ehl notes.

“A very tough and fierce information war is going on the vaccination field and Czechs are not too immune to targeted lies,” Ehl points out, suggesting that perhaps, PM Andrej Babis could engage his favourite PR expert Marek Prchal to persuade people.

However, there are many rational arguments, too. A largely and quickly applied vaccine against the novel coronavirus will open the door to economic revival, Ehl argues.

The Czech Republic has one of the highest COVID death rates in Europe. It is not necessary to write that the vaccine helps prevent many thousands of deaths and allows for seeing grandparents without fear, Ehl sums up.

“Or did we fall that deep?” he asks.