Microphones are tricky, many virologists and immunologists are currently being asked tricky questions live on the air, the world is listening eagerly, people worry and seek support. Sure, who better to know better than those who deal with the details of this nasty little virus on a daily basis? But this is exactly where things get complicated, because every sentence, no matter how carelessly uttered, can have serious consequences, heighten doubts and fears, and take courage.
The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission Thomas Mertens is now such a slip in the podcast of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung happened: There he was asked whether he was currently having his seven- or eight-year-old child vaccinated against Covid. Mertens replied: No, he probably wouldn’t do that at the moment. “Mertens would not vaccinate her own children” headlined newspapers. The sentence was right.
There are only a few words, perhaps uttered carelessly, but they are part of the often clumsy communication strategy of Stiko. With his publicly expressed private opinion, Mertens undermines the work of his own institution, which always emphasizes not to react to external pressure, but only to make decisions on the basis of data.
But that is exactly what it is about: Mertens himself brought up in conversation that there was a lack of data in order to be able to safely rule out possible complications from the vaccination. In the same conversation, however, he also pointed out that the concern about long-term consequences after the infection is currently difficult to substantiate with data. Both are formally correct, and yet Mertens is embarking on a communication balancing act.
Between the lines it resonates that child vaccinations could be the worse alternative in balancing the infection, garnished with his personal gut feeling. No matter what the Stiko recommends from now on, there will be parents who will get stuck with this thought: Virus or not, the vaccination could harm my child. And that’s a disaster.
Perhaps it would have been interesting for the audience if Stiko boss Mertens had mentioned in the interview that in the USA the major pediatric associations as well as the mighty one United States Department of Health CDC have long since expressly advised children to be vaccinated. Why? According to all that is currently known, infection with Sars-CoV-2 is the worse alternative for everyone. For children too.