Greeks among EU citizens with least trust in vaccines

Low public confidence in vaccines is pushing immunization rates down and disease outbreaks up, according to a new study published by the European Commission which shows Greece is among the countries where trust in vaccines is the lowest despite some improvement in recent years.

“The European region has lower confidence in the safety of vaccines than other regions in the world,” EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis said ahead of World Polio Day Wednesday.

“Seven out of the 10 countries with the lowest vaccine confidence in the world are in Europe,” he said, noting that four – France, Greece, Italy, and Slovenia – are in the EU. Still the report found that Greece is among the countries where trust in vaccines has inched up since 2015, while the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and Sweden display rising levels of mistrust.

Recent outbreaks of measles reveal the impact of fewer vaccines and should prompt governments to boost awareness, the report said.