On Tuesday, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told TVN24 viewers that the death toll from the pandemic in Poland is now more than 100,000 people. But Krzysztof J. Filipiak, the deputy rector of Warsaw’s private Medical University, told website onet.pl that the number of deaths is far higher.
Filipiak said more than 200,000 people had died in Poland during the pandemic. “Half of those are confirmed cases of COVID-19,” he said. “The other half are either unconfirmed cases or collateral damage — deaths attributed to the paralysis of the health service, failure to treat other diseases, deteriorating health care and the collapse of the health system.”
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski puts the number of COVID deaths in Poland at 100,000
Filipiak said Poland has the worst funded healthcare system in the European Union and the fewest doctors per 1,000 population at 2.4 – compared to Germany’s 4.2. Many public health observers also blame the low vaccination rate in Poland for the high COVID-19 death rate. According to the government, less than 21.3 million Poles – about 55% of the population – are fully vaccinated. About 7.7 million people or 18% have received booster shots. In Germany, 72% of people received two doses and 43.5% received triple vaccination.
Among the 27 EU member states, only Croatia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria lag behind Poland when it comes to vaccination. Despite repeated appeals from the authorities and a multitude of celebrities, many citizens still refuse to be pierced. After record-breaking days of more than 650,000 vaccinations in June and a subsequent sharp drop in the summer, rates began to rise again in the fall. But the number of vaccinations per day rarely exceeds 250,000.
Restrictions are ignored
There is little pressure to get vaccinated in Poland. Despite December’s Christmas markets being canceled across Europe, people in Poland flocked to market squares and crowded around mulled wine stalls. State broadcaster TVP’s New Year’s Eve party attracted 16,000 people to celebrate.
The pandemic has led to the closure of the German-Polish border
The government regularly publishes “information and advice” on social distancing, but this guidance is rarely followed. Restaurants, bars and cinemas are only allowed to fill 30% of the seats, but vaccinated people are exempt from restrictions, according to the government website, and restaurants, hotels and health clubs do not require documentation. A simple “yes” is enough when customers are asked if they have been bitten. This has to do in part with the fact that the legality of querying vaccination status remains in question.
The bigger the city, the more likely people are to heed the pandemic measures. But in Baltic Sea resorts or in the mountains of southern Poland you see crowded pubs where nobody seems to care about vaccinations, vaccination cards or face masks. You are often smiled at when you enter a shop in the eastern parts of the country with a mask. Many people openly question the existence of the pandemic.
Poland’s deputy health minister says there are historical reasons for widespread anti-vaccination sentiment
Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska recently said Poles have developed genetic resistance to regulations over the centuries. In November, he told private radio station RMF that’s why the government didn’t implement a shutdown. “If we don’t enforce the existing restrictions,” he said, “it won’t help if we introduce additional ones.”
“Festival” of denial
As infection numbers soar, lawmakers from the nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) may be forced to take concrete action to slow the spread. A draft law, presented in November and currently under discussion, would give employers the right to check the vaccination status of the staff. Lawmakers from across the right-wing spectrum – including the PiS, a party where anti-vaccination sentiment is widespread – have expressed their opposition to the bill.
Poland’s president has expressed little enthusiasm for legislation to contain the pandemic
More than 60 associations, most of them anti-vaccination, have been invited to a meeting of the Legislature’s Health Committee on Jan. 5. Critical media sarcastically described the gathering as a “celebration” of anti-pandemic measures.
President Andrzej Duda told the Polish Press Agency in late December that people “need to understand that those who do not want to be vaccinated have their fears and doubts”. Asked if he would sign the vaccine bill should it pass Parliament, Duda said: “It’s going to be a very difficult decision.”
This article was originally written in German.
