Why does eastern Poland not believe in a vaccine? “It’s more complicated than it sounds”

– As I recall the various crises we went through, the principle was one: frighten the society, but make it really afraid, then find a cure, solve the crisis. Now it turns out that it is not so easy – says a sociologist from the Catholic University of Lublin, Dr. Robert Szwed. – I admit that I would not like to be in the shoes of people who manage this mess. The scientist also considered why eastern Poland does not believe in vaccination against COVID-19.

1. Why does eastern Poland not want to vaccinate against COVID-19? Sociologist dr hab. Robert Szwed believes that this should not be associated with age, gender, religiosity or political sympathies
2. There is, however, an approach which “, though not very harsh, best explains the matter” – the mindset of the people living there
3. – I would not like to be in the shoes of people who manage this mess – says the scientist and reveals what in the current situation he would do in the first place
4. More information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page

PAP: The fewest vaccinations, but the most infections and deaths from COVID-19, the most occupied hospital beds are in the province. eastern – the Lublin region and the Subcarpathian region. For this Podlasie. How do these regions differ from others that their inhabitants do not trust doctors and science?

Dr hab. Robert Szwed, lecturer at the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication and the Institute of Sociology of the Catholic University of Lublin, curator of the department of media culture: There are enclaves like this in many countries, and sociologists around the world are wondering why. And let me tell you that I do not have one good answer to this question either. It also seems to me that the analysis at the poviat level would be more rational than at the voivodship level.

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But let us try to consider a few variables which, by approaching the matter on the basis of common sense, as well as experience and knowledge we have, could influence such a distrust of medicine and vaccines.

The first thing that would probably come to mind for many people is a worse education – those who have graduated from fewer schools do not know, do not understand, so they believe in superstition. However, when we look at the statistics, it turns out that, for example, the inhabitants of the Lublin region are better educated than those living in the western part of Poland, which is influenced, for example, by the existence of a large academic center in Lublin. And yet the western parts of the country are in a better epidemic situation.

Age, gender, population density?

The statistics are also helpless in this case. It would seem that people over 65 years of age will be more likely than others to be vaccinated as those at higher risk. But no, in the voivodeship seniors in Lublin do not take vaccines.

Someone might also assume that women who visit doctors more often than men, take various preventive measures, care for the health safety of their families, should be advocates of protecting themselves and their loved ones against this potentially fatal disease. Again, it is wrong thinking. Women in the Lublin region less frequently take drugs against COVID-19 than men.

The population density also has no influence on this, after all, Podkarpacie is more densely populated than the Lublin region – but in both cases the level of vaccination is almost as low.

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Perhaps it is about the worldview – to put it more broadly than the sympathy for a given political party.

It is more complicated than it seems – especially if we stay at the level of provinces, which are not homogeneous after all. The best example is the last local government election in Rzeszów. Podkarpacie supposedly supports PiS, but this party lost in the voivodeship city.

Besides, the ruling party unequivocally urges everyone to get vaccinated, invents more and more actions and lotteries, its representatives are active in the media with the vaccine message.

I would not associate it with religiosity, especially since Pope Francis speaks of positive vaccinations and priests – after the initial confusion – later even organized vaccination campaigns at churches, after Sunday services.

Maybe it’s just such a mentality – a set of beliefs and attitudes, the way of thinking of people living here?

I think that this approach, although not very harsh, explains the matter best. The inhabitants of these eastern parts of Poland are characterized by conservatism, understood as attachment to stability, which is associated with security, reluctance to change. Yet these mRNA vaccines are novelty, something that is difficult for even educated people to understand, unless they have specific knowledge about it. This thorn, his protein – black magic.

So this intellectual elite, as these people probably consider themselves, having a sense of cognitive discomfort, will talk about their doubts by dressing them in learned words, invoke the arguments of safety, the need to conduct many years of research, will indicate medical “experiments”. Those less educated soothe their dissonance by accepting arguments about the global conspiracy of big farm and Soros.

If it is, as you say, the reason for the reluctance to vaccinate is a certain specific conservatism, then these people should be more inclined to succumb to authority – as shown by numerous studies.

We live in a time of crisis of authority. Today, the Internet has become an authority – people think they will find answers to all their questions there. And it is not so. Especially that its users – even the better educated ones – are unable, and sometimes do not want to verify the sources of information. Simply put: they duplicate what they think is right. A bit like that a credible source (or an intelligent person, an expert) are those whose views are similar to what a person thinks and feels.

The Internet and social media have ruined what so far seemed certain to sociologists and social psychologists, scientifically proven. And there are loads of experts, true and false, on the web. On the opinion of one, you can quickly find the opinion of another that will override the other.

One day, the head of the head would say what should be done, and since the head of the head is an official person, many people would comply. Or what the priest said from the pulpit …

As thanks to the Internet the world has become one global village, a person with anti-vaccination beliefs, according to scientists who have conducted serious research on, for example, the side effects of preparation X, which shows that they constitute a small percentage in relation to a large group of people. who accepted him would soon find some “doctor from Germany” who said vaccination was an experiment and depopulation.

This is not only our problem, such attitudes are observed in specific areas around the world. In the United States, for example, they are more prominent in regions that favor former President Donald Trump.

So in a conservative province. But you yourself said that our trust in vaccines does not translate directly into political sympathy.

Because it is. Perhaps only the supporters of the Confederation, which openly demonstrates its skepticism towards them, are fairly homogeneous in their attitudes.

It may be more important than political sympathies, education and all the other factors that we have already talked about, is adopting the attitude of the group in which we live, in which we live.

For some time I have been living in a village near Lublin, where there are many people similar to me, townspeople who – for various reasons – moved “to the bosom of nature”. The village is small, only 260 inhabitants of all, away from a large urban center. When a person goes outside, he sees mainly the fields, hears birds singing, and the trees grow there. And in such a situation, the following thinking is even imposed: “peaceful village, cheerful village”. And also that out there in the world various strange, dangerous things are happening, but it will not happen to us.

If a neighbor says that he has never vaccinated against anything, because it is dangerous, you can “get a chip” or develop autism, and yet he has not only children, but also healthy grandchildren, then without specialist knowledge or conceptual apparatus, which would allow us to describe and understand a new reality, fearing to express our opinion, we are willing to “agree to the opinion of the previous speaker”.

Translating it into reality: I was recently in the company of very religious people (for ease of reference, they were not Catholics), in which the conversation turned to vaccinations. I was the only one to say I was vaccinated with the full dose and I am going to take a third booster as well. There was a crowd of voices around me saying that I was wrong, that it was dangerous, etc. But later, when I spoke privately with members of this community, many said that they also got vaccinated or were going to do so., but it turned out that the social pressure is so great that they prefer not to admit it.

So we are like those sheep in a rush …

To a large extent, yes, though when this comparison was invented, it wasn’t yet the internet bubbles we’re spinning in today, although one has a lot in common with the other.

Poles have one thing in common – a lack of trust. Not only to authorities, but in general – to each other.

And the areas we are talking about, i.e. the east of Poland, are even more distrustful, because for many years he lived in a feeling of exclusion. They were said to be poorer, and therefore stupid, less resourceful. When the current ruling camp came to power, the narrative changed. People who were previously on the periphery, unnoticed, underestimated, heard that they are as important as the salon elite in Warsaw, or even more important.

Such an addition of value to previously neglected groups was extremely important – both for political and election reasons, because these people believed that something really depends on them, that they are important. But at the same time – coming back to the pandemic – they felt as wise, causative, decisive about themselves – as those wise ones. Like all those professors who don’t know anything about life.

Because please imagine that the owner of the farm, not too big, gets up in the morning and, as described in Redliński’s “Konopielka”, goes to urinate in beautiful natural circumstances. And here the birds are singing, the river flows … So this plague will not come to us, it is impossible. And even when Iksiński died, he was old and sick, it was time for him. And that’s how it happens.

I am the one to ask about the partitions with which we used to explain many social behaviors.

This may be a good lead, albeit insufficient to explain all the differences in trust – broken into distrust – towards the discoveries of medicine. For example, the borders between the partitions were changing, the lands that were Galicia one day, passed under rule the next, and vice versa. What is striking is actually greater discipline of the inhabitants of the areas that were under P or German partition.

Greater discipline, a sense of order, greater ease of compliance with regulations, even those with which we do not agree.

I think so. And an even greater sense of belonging, social control. Wherever the inflow element is of greater importance, where there are no – stagnant – social relationships, there is a greater susceptibility to succumbing to conspiracy theories. People are afraid, not only does fear have big eyes, it also gives people solutions that go against the logic. They encapsulate themselves in the hope that if they don’t change anything in their lives, if they don’t take this terrible vaccine they don’t understand, they’ll stay safe.

How do you evaluate the actions of our authorities in managing the pandemic crisis we are in?

As I recall the various crises we went through, the principle was one: frighten the society, but make it really afraid, then find a cure, solve the crisis. Now it turns out that it is not that easy.

And I must admit that I would not like to be in the shoes of people who manage this mess. What comes to my mind as a sociologist is that we don’t have enough data. If I were the mover, some kind of Demiurge, the first thing I would do is do some good researchfrom which I would try to find out why people living in eastern Poland behave the way they do. And I would draw conclusions.

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PAP/ Mira Suchodolska

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