Who will be held accountable,” he rhetorically asked on July 31.
The post has already received 1.7 thousand reactions and 430 comments, about 140 people shared it.
Although the country’s leader has certainly mentioned such a number, it is misinterpreted in this post.
The goal grew even before crossing the first step
Already in January 2021, just a few weeks after the start of COVID-19 vaccination, G. Nausėda stated that it was realistic to vaccinate 70% of the adult population in the European Union by that summer.
After the then European Council meeting, he emphasized that the European Union’s (EU) collective immunity goal is a serious commitment to the citizens of member states and this commitment must be justified by real actions.
The European Commission’s proposal to vaccinate 70% of adult EU citizens, thus forming collective immunity in each member state, is ambitious.
To achieve it, it is important to ensure the implementation of two main prerequisites: accelerating vaccine supply and proper preparation for mass vaccination at the national level,” G. Nausėda said at the meeting.
This is really an unattainable indicator because we do not vaccinate children, vaccine use is not approved for them, children make up more than 10% of the population.
As calculated by the Health Experts Council he assembled, to form collective immunity to the new coronavirus in Lithuania, about 70% of the population – 2 million people – needed to be vaccinated by mid-July 2021.
At the end of summer, G. Nausėda set an even more ambitious goal – at least 90% of the country’s population should be vaccinated against COVID-19. Although at that time (he spoke on August 31) the vaccination level was supposed to reach 70% of the population, according to the president, with the spread of the delta variant, a new goal needs to be set.
The country’s leader also acknowledged that vaccination should be mandatory for certain professions if a return to normal life is desired.
Experts assessed the president’s ambitions skeptically, and the 90% vaccination level he mentioned as difficult to achieve or undefined.
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“This is really an unattainable indicator because we do not vaccinate children, vaccine use is not approved for them, children make up more than 10% of the population,” said Vilnius University Life Sciences Center professor Aurelija Žvirblienė on the LRT TV show “Important Hour” at that time.
She suggested rephrasing the set goal: “I think it is important to reach 90% and more, close to one hundred percent, of those people who are in the highest risk groups. Because there is definitely still a reserve for that in Lithuania. The vaccination rate of the elderly is far from 90%. The greatest attention should be focused on that.”
Moreover, according to the scientist, no one even attempts to provide specific numbers that would already guarantee universal immunity.
A few days later, G. Nausėda himself significantly reduced the ambitions – explained that the 90% vaccination level is only an “indicative figure, which is not political but based on certain expert recommendations.”
“First of all, the concern should be not so much the percentages but the safety of society, the health condition,” the president said.
Commenting on the 70% vaccination level finally reached in early September 2021, he admitted that it is pleasing but urged not to stop: “The further we go down this path, the more opportunities there will be to talk about the removal of those restrictions that today perhaps annoy a large part of society.”
15min verdict: partly false. President Gitanas Nausėda had ambitions that 90% of the population in Lithuania would be vaccinated against coronavirus, but this was only an indicative goal, not an order.
The publication was prepared by 15min in cooperation with Meta, aiming to stop the spread of misleading news on social media. More about the program and its rules – here.
