Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, in discussion with the President of the National Vaccination Committee, Maria Theodoridou, referred to the new vaccination strategy, emphasizing that the country has already significantly increased the budget for vaccines and that further support will follow.

He stated that the pandemic era left a deep divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, causing suspicion toward a medical practice that has historically been one of the main factors in increasing life expectancy.

The Minister noted that the invention of vaccines “changed humanity” and reminded that in earlier times, child mortality was so high that, as he pointed out, “Persian magnates did not see their children until their fifth birthday.” He also emphasized that the existence of rare side effects cannot lead to questioning the overall benefit: “A statistical probability cannot change the major issue,” he said.

“If the theories about vaccines were true, then statistically we would have seen a huge increase in sudden deaths. Eighty percent of the population has been vaccinated. ELSTAT shows that after COVID, life expectancy began to rise again.” According to the Minister, misinformation about vaccines does not only have social consequences but “leads people to lose their lives.”

Mr. Georgiadis added that if rumors about serious complications truly affected the entire vaccinated population, the country would have recorded an exponential increase in cardiovascular events, which is not confirmed by any statistical data. He also stressed that the spread of false news online is one of the biggest challenges in public health.

Within the framework of overall health policy, the Minister mentioned that Greece has achieved 100% electronic prescriptions and that a new digital platform will soon be launched to allow advanced collection and utilization of data in hospitalizations and primary care. “Our responsibility is to be able to explain the benefits of vaccination to the public in simple terms,” he noted, adding that vaccination rates are already approaching pre-pandemic levels.