Corona vaccination: Approach receives approval
Anyone who belongs to a risk group, lives in a nursing home or works in healthcare is first entitled to a vaccination against the novel coronavirus. The order for vaccination protection is regulated by the national vaccination strategy. As the results of the 27th edition of the BfR-Corona-Monitor, a regular survey conducted by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), show, the majority of the population approves of this approach. "74 percent of the respondents consider the national vaccination strategy to be appropriate," says BfR-President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "This indicates that the strategy is accepted."
While some regulations, such as the cancellation of events or the quarantine measures, have always been met with approval in recent months, other measures are now less accepted. Whereas shortly before Christmas, 84 percent of the respondents considered the contact restrictions to be appropriate, 74 percent say so in the current survey. Over the same period, approval of the closure of shops fell by ten percentage points to 56 percent.
In the previous months, around 60 percent of the respondents said they felt well-informed about what was happening regarding the coronavirus. However, since the beginning of 2021, the perceived informedness has been declining. In the current survey, just under half of the population felt well or very well informed about what was happening. About one-fifth said they felt badly or very badly informed.
Across all age groups, common protective measures such as wearing a mask and keeping more distance to other people continue to be implemented by the vast majority. However, there are differences in the perceived controllability of an infection with the coronavirus. For example, 32 percent of 14- to 39-year-olds say they are not sure whether they can protect themselves from an infection. In the age group 60 and older, this figure stands at 20 percent.
The BfR continually adapts its FAQs on the topic of coronavirus to the current state of science:
About the BfR-Corona-Monitor
The BfR-Corona-Monitor is a recurring (multi-wave) representative survey of the German population's perception of risks from the novel coronavirus. Every week between 24 March and 26 May 2020, around 500 randomly selected people were asked by telephone about their assessment of the risk of infection and their protective measures, among other things. Since June 2020, the survey is continued every two weeks with about 1,000 respondents each. A summary of the data is regularly published on the homepage of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. More information about the method and sample can be found in publications about the BfR-Corona-Monitor.
About the BfR
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientifically independent institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. It advises the German federal government and German federal states ("Laender") on questions of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.
This text version is a translation of the original German text which is the only legally binding version.
