Media campaign regarding vaccination supported by European Commission

The European Commission joins Romania's efforts in the communication campaign on vaccination, in which context the EC and its Representative Office in Romania launched a media campaign on Tuesday on immunisation against COVID-19, in supporting the national authorities' efforts to fight the pandemic, agerpres reports.

"Vaccination plays a key role in combating the pandemic. Vaccinated people protect themselves and others against the virus," according to a statement from the EC Representation in Bucharest.

The campaign consists of a 40-second spot that will be broadcast on both Romanian television and radio stations. It includes testimonies of people who lost loved ones to the COVID-19 pandemic. The TV spot will be broadcast for a period of seven weeks.

There is an urgent need to reduce the vaccination gap in the EU. Once with the emergence of the new Omicron strain, vaccination, including the booster dose, is more important than ever. In Romania, only 39% of the population is currently fully vaccinated, and the rate of vaccination continues to decline. Vaccination gaps not only increase the risk of serious forms of the disease, hospitalization and loss of life, but also give way to more severe and transmissible strains. This is a risk not only for Romania but for the EU as a whole, said Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

For her part, Adina Valean, the European Commissioner for Transport, said that vaccines are powerful tools in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging Romanians to get vaccinated, for their own good and the benefit of those close to them.

In addition, the European Commission provides comprehensive information on vaccines and vaccination, for example on social media platforms, to encourage informed debate on the role of vaccination in combating the pandemic.

Together with the EU's specialized agencies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency, the Commission communicates and works with citizens to address vaccination reluctance and to combat misinformation.

To date, an average of 78% of adults in the EU are vaccinated. However, there are large differences between vaccination rates in EU member states. In Romania, 46.7% of the adults are vaccinated.

The European Commission has provided 4.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the EU and partner countries. In the EU, COVID-19 vaccines are approved and placed on the market following a very thorough evaluation of their safety and efficacy by the European Medicines Agency. The European Union has very high standards for the safety of medicines, including the safety of vaccines - some of the highest standards in the world, the statement said.