Greek govt announced new restrictive measures targeting the #unvaccinated population. These include suspension from work for unvaccinated staff in healthcare/pharmacies, mandating regular rapid tests (1/week) at their own expense for staff in broader public & private sector… 1/
Even more often tests (2/week) for staff in education, tourism, hospitality & arts. Totally excluding unvaccinated citizens from indoor spaces of restaurants/bars. While restricting free rapid tests in Greece’s public health hubs for the vaccinated only. 2/
I understand the concerns of govt & expert advisors about going into autumn with infections still high & vaccination pace significantly slowed down or even declining. However, we should remember that the communication strategy of this govt has been disastrous. 3/
Being mostly concerned about saving face & scoring points against the opposition, the Greek govt has done very little to advance a systematic, comprehensive & efficient public information campaign on #vaccines, how they work, why they are safe, why we need them so much. 4/
Instead of that, the govt has mostly advanced a divisive, often straight Manichean discourse, pitting the #vaccinated against the #unvaccinated, something that has only entrenched & emboldened the #antivax movement & conspiracy theories in Greece. 5/
At the same time, the govt has often either enforced decisions on its expert committee advisors or simply bypassed them, while holding the minutes of that committee (an equivalent to the British SAGE, so non-Greeks can follow here), confidential & hidden from the public. 6/
This has eroded trust in both govt institutions & experts. It has also exposed the often contradictory & ‘political’ (not driven by scientific advice, as they claim) character of certain measures. Again, this further erodes trust & impedes compliance. 7/
Why, for example, make #churches exempt from all the measures/restrictions that will be imposed for all other public/private indoor spaces? Churches tend to be particularly crowded & several among Greece’s priests have openly declared themselves to be COVID-deniers & #antivax. 8/
The Greek govt has been soft with the Orthodox church from the beginning of the #pandemic. A disgracefully irresponsible strategy for political gains. Sadly, this continues. And this is just one example of the many inconsistencies & contradictions guiding its COVID policy. 9/
What the country needs is a robust & efficient public information campaign about vaccines, a strong & sustained push to speed up the vaccination pace, meaningful investment in public health, both in staff & infrastructure. There's been very little -if anything- on this front. 10/
A simplistic strategy the splits society between the vaxxed & unvaxxed, blames everything on latter & refuses any meaningful dialogue on its own mistakes/contradictions is exacerbating existing problems & disorients the public from discussing the issues that truly matter. END/
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