Two new polls have found that a narrow majority of the public in Poland favour introducing additional restrictions for people who are unvaccinated against COVID-19.
The country is currently experiencing a rapid rise in infections, with the health minister warning that the number of cases could soon reach the highest ever level. Meanwhile, less than 54% of the Polish population are fully vaccinated, a figure that has barely risen since the summer.
The government, however, insists that it is not planning to introduce new restrictions, with the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, warning that doing so would have great “social costs” and could prompt the kind of violent protests recently seen in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
In a Kantar poll for Gazeta Wyborcza published at the weekend, 55% of respondents said that the government should introduce restrictions for unvaccinated people. A significant minority, 40%, were opposed to the idea.
Among supporters of every major political party apart from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), a majority favoured placing additional restrictions on the unvaccinated.
For the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, 52% of their supporters backed the idea. For the largest opposition group, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), the figure rose to 83%.
Women (63%) were much more likely to favour the idea than men (47%), as were those with higher education (63%) compared to those with the lowest level of education (45%). The elderly and people living in big cities were more likely to be in favour than the young and people in rural areas.
Kantar’s findings reinforced those from an IBRiS poll for Polsat News earlier last week. It found that almost 54% favoured banning the unvaccinated from public spaces such as restaurants and cinemas. Just over 41% were opposed to the idea.
Likewise, 56% believed employers should be given the right to check their employees’ vaccination status, as the government has proposed to do. Just over 37% were opposed.
However, 52% rejected the idea that unvaccinated people hospitalised with COVID-19 should pay for their own medical treatment, while only 35% would support such a proposal.
Robert Flisiak, a professor of infectious diseases who sits on the prime minister’s Medical Council, told Gazeta Wyborcza that the findings of the polls undermine the government’s claims that the public would not accept new restrictions. In fact, a narrow majority support them, at least for the unvaccinated.
Last week, the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that “in our country, certain coercive measures are not only badly received, but they can act counter-effectively and discourage people”. One of his deputies added that Poles have “resistance in our genes”.
However, speaking to Radio Zet yesterday, Niedzielski admitted that, if a “black scenario” occurs and infections do not begin to decline significantly after mid-December, “then it will certainly force us to take actions that will be more painful”.
Poland’s vaccine rollout, which was launched in December 2020, initially proceeded at roughly the same rate as the European Union average. However, since July it has fallen significantly behind amid a sharp drop in registrations.
The government has offered various incentives – including a lottery for fully vaccinated people with a one million zloty top prize – to encourage people to get the jab. But so far with little success.
In August, Jarosław Kaczyński – who as PiS chairman is Poland’s de facto leader – warned that unvaccinated people should “expect restrictions” to be imposed on them. However, since then the government has avoided introducing any such measures.
Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
