Bulgarians 'Most Mistrustful of Vaccines in EU': Report

Only two out of three Bulgarians agree that vaccines are safe and 72.7 per cent believe they are effective - among the lowest level of trust among European Union nationals, according to a report published by the European Commission on Wednesday to mark World Polio Day.

The report, compiled as part of the Vaccine Confidence Project by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, highlights a worrying trend of declining societal trust in the benefits of vaccination across Europe, a lack of coordination among EU members, and significant differences in national vaccination strategies.

While some Western European countries like Portugal and Finland show an increase in trust in vaccinations, many Eastern European states, and particularly Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia, have become more mistrustful compared to 2015, the survey suggests.

The two outliers in the East-West divide are France, where only 70 per cent of people think vaccines are safe, a figure close to that of Bulgaria, and Hungary, where 91.4 per cent of people believe vaccines are good for children - compared to 78.4 per cent in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian nationals were among the five most sceptical respondents to all eight questions posed to respondents.

The questions addressed trust in vaccination in general, belief that vaccination is good for children, belief in the importance and effectiveness of immunization is important and effective, as well as belief that the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella can be trusted.

The survey suggests a link between trust among general practitioners in the positive effects of vaccinations and the levels of trust in vaccination their patients display.

This was particularly visible in Romania, where 81...