Father Provincial Bernhard Bürgler SJ of the Central European Province, himself vaccinated for the third time, encourages people to inform themselves and take the step to (booster) vaccination. "The incidence figures are still frightening, and we should all consider what part we citizens can play to help fight the pandemic. I think vaccinating is an act of charity for all those who can't get vaccinated for health or other reasons and for the people in our health care system."

At the same time, Bürgler can relate to the insecurities of the unvaccinated. For this reason, the Jesuit and physician Eckhard Frick SJ ventures to provide a decision-making aid for the uncertain.

The German expression "impfen" has a long history: In Middle High German, it means "to propfen, to insert a graft, to graft." It therefore initially means the grafting and grafting of fruit trees, which the Germanic peoples had adopted from Roman culture. It was not until the 18th century that vaccination took on the meaning of 'incision, injection of pathogens', i.e. "vaccine" (derived from variolae vaccinae: 'cowpox', the pathogen of which the English physician Edward Jenner used to immunize against smallpox). Immunity, i.e. the ability to develop "antibodies" against certain surface properties of pathogens (called "antigens"), can be acquired and also lost: Anyone who has recovered from an infectious disease develops immunity, but at the price of having gone through a more or less severe disease and - this should also not be concealed - with the risk of not recovering and becoming immune, but dying from the disease. Protective vaccination with administration of active vaccine also leads to active immunization ("immunological memory", which "remembers" the antigen when it comes into contact with it again). Passive immunization, on the other hand, consists in the administration of specific antibodies of immunized humans or animals or very early through placenta or via breast milk to the unborn or infant.

The vaccines available today are either live pathogens that are attenuated in their disease-causing effect (live vaccines) or dead vaccines. The novel vaccines against the corona virus (mRNA and vector vaccines) are equivalent to dead vaccines: They produce neither an infection nor a change in the genetic material in the vaccinated person, but only the production of antibodies. If the immunity thus produced wanes, booster vaccinations are possible.

Not an individual problem

Because of transmissibility (contagion), infectious diseases are an individual problem, but also a social problem. We are becoming distressingly aware of this in the current Covid 19 pandemic: even infected non-infected ("positive") people and even vaccinated people can pass on the virus and spread it locally, regionally, and even worldwide in everyday encounters or through use of transportation. The FFP2 masks currently in use significantly reduce the risk of transmission if worn correctly.

Vaccination protects the individual who is vaccinated, as well as other people with whom he or she associates. For infectious diseases transmitted from person to person, sufficiently high vaccination rates (at least 70-80% of the population) and the resulting displacement of the pathogen lead to indirect protection of people who cannot be vaccinated.

The eradication of human smallpox is the classic example of a successful vaccination campaign.  It was therefore possible to abolish the mandatory vaccination against smallpox in 1982. Currently, there is a discussion in politics, but also in many private conversations, whether we need compulsory vaccination against covid-19: for employees in hospitals and care facilities, perhaps also in schools and daycare centers, maybe even in general. This discussion is prompted by continuing infection pressures from inadequate "herd" immunity in society and from viral mutations that seem to outpace the pace of immunity buildup.

Let's think back a year: no vaccine was available at the end of 2020, and in the months that followed, the debate was about in what order and when we should get vaccinated. In the meantime, debate revolves more around the question of whether everyone needs to be vaccinated and how we deal with the different points of view in this regard. We can only think about the freedom of the individual and solidarity, care for each other and for the particularly vulnerable together - in the interests of all.

Jesuits ECE