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COVID-19 has highlighted the vast differences in attitudes towards vaccination across Europe. In Bulgaria and Romania, uptake of COVID-19 vaccination has been significantly lower in comparison to Western Europe; 36% and 51% of adults have been double-jabbed respectively, while the EU/EEA average is 84%.

Despite COVID-19 vaccines saving the lives of 470,000 older Europeans (aged 60 and over), the benefits of getting vaccinated have not resonated in Central & Eastern Europe. Death rates have been much higher in Eastern EU countries with lower vaccine uptake than in Western ones.

It’s not just COVID-19 vaccination that is low in Central & Eastern Europe. Uptake of other vaccines across the life course remains suboptimal, with cases of diseases such as measles rising due to a lack of confidence in childhood vaccinations. Romania recorded the highest number of measles cases across the EU/EEA in 2018 (4,778 reported confirmed cases by ECDC).

Understanding the barriers to vaccination in Central & Eastern Europe is crucial. To ensure healthy ageing and protection against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) across the lifespan, uptake needs to be higher across vaccination programmes for COVID-19, influenza (flu), pneumococcal pneumonia, herpes zoster (shingles), measles and many other routine immunisations.

Getting to the root cause of vaccine hesitancy is key to strengthening people’s confidence and improving the low levels of uptake. Until there is equitable uptake across the whole of Europe, the threat posed by VPDs remains very real.

This project has been made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer and is being produced in partnership with the Coalition for Life Course Immunisation and the ILC Europe Network.