a322x1n
2021-10-02 02:52:30 UTC
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/world/europe/portugal-vaccination-rat
e.html?campaign_id=57&emc=edit_ne_20211001&instance_id=41872&nl=evening-b
riefing®i_id=56173448&segment_id=70487&te=1&user_id=d4913d1af0612e6b21
c33637634f174a>
<https://tinyurl.com/yf65jdb2>
In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate.
Portugal is among the most highly vaccinated countries in the world.
Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who led the campaign, said there was
a key to his success: Keep politics out of it.
By Marc Santora and Raphael Minder.
Oct. 1, 2021, Updated 12:42 p.m. ET.
Portugals health care system was on the verge of collapse. Hospitals in
the capital, Lisbon, were overflowing and the authorities were asking
people to treat themselves at home. In the last week of January, nearly
2,000 people died as the virus spread.
The countrys vaccine program was in a shambles, so the government
turned to Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a former submarine squadron
commander, to right the ship.
Eight months later, Portugal is among the worlds leaders in
vaccinations, with roughly 86 percent of its population of 10.3 million
fully vaccinated. About 98 percent of all of those eligible for vaccines
meaning anyone over 12 have been fully vaccinated, Admiral Gouveia e
Melo said.
We believe we have reached the point of group protection and nearly
herd immunity, he said. Things look very good.
On Friday, Portugal ended nearly all of its coronavirus restrictions.
There has been a sharp drop in new cases, to about 650 a day, and
vanishingly few deaths.
Many Western nations fortunate enough to have abundant vaccine supplies
have seen inoculation rates plateau, with more than 20 percent of their
populations still unprotected. So other governments are looking to
Portugal for possible insights and are watching closely to see what
happens when nearly every eligible person is protected.
False dawns in the coronavirus pandemic have been as common as new
nightmare waves of infection. So Portugal could still see a setback as
the Delta variant continues to spread globally.
There have been worrying signs from Israel and elsewhere that protection
offered by vaccines can fade over time, and a worldwide debate is raging
over who should be offered booster shots and when.
Portugal may soon start offering boosters to older people and those
deemed clinically vulnerable, Admiral Gouveia e Melo said, and he was
confident they could all be reached by the end of December.
But for the moment, as bars and nightclubs buzz with life, infections
dwindle and deaths plummet, the countrys vaccination drive has
succeeded even after encountering many of the same hurdles that caused
others to flounder.
The same flood of misinformation about vaccines has filled the social
media accounts of the Portuguese. The country is run by a minority
left-wing government, a reflection of its political divisions. And,
according to public opinion polls, there was widespread doubt about the
vaccines when they first arrived.
Admiral Gouveia e Melo has been credited with turning it around. With a
background working on complicated logistical challenges in the military,
he was named in February to lead the national vaccination task force.
Standing 6 feet 3 inches, the admiral made it a point to wear only his
combat uniform in his many public and television appearances as he
sought to essentially draft the nation into one collective
pandemic-fighting force.
The first thing is to make this thing a war, Admiral Gouveia e Melo
said in an interview, recalling how he approached the job. I use not
only the language of war, but military language.
While politicians around the world have invoked a similar martial
rhetoric, he said it was critical to his success that he was widely seen
as detached from politics.
He quickly assembled a team of some three dozen people, led by elite
military personnel including mathematicians, doctors, analysts and
strategic experts from Portugals Army, Air Force and Navy.
Asked what other countries can do to bolster their own vaccination
efforts, he did not hesitate to offer his best advice.
They need to find people who are not politicians, he said.
Before the pandemic, Portugal was fortunate to have a robust national
vaccination program. It grew out of the countrys devastating experience
battling polio, which was still affecting the country after Admiral
Gouveia e Melo was born in 1960. He recalls when the daughter of a
family friend fell ill from the disease and the suffering that followed.
Manuela Ivone da Cunha, a Portuguese anthropologist who has studied
anti-vaccination movements, said that vaccine doubters and anti-vaxxers
are in the minority in Portugal, and they are also less vocal than they
are in many other countries.
Leonor Beleza, a former Portuguese health minister who is now the
president of the Champalimaud medical foundation, said Portugals
rollout clearly benefited from the discipline stemming from the
nomination of a military officer.
He formulated a communications policy about what was happening that
gave credibility and trust, she said.
As the task force devised the most efficient system to safely stream the
most people through inoculation centers, they used troops to build
confidence in the system. People could see the vaccines were safe as
soldier after soldier got shots.
At the same time, the task force made a point of showing doctors and
nurses getting their shots, as well, to drive home the message of
vaccine safety.
While other countries have featured doctors, nurses, police officers and
soldiers in their vaccine campaigns, Admiral Gouveia e Melo said the
consistency of the messaging was critical.
Still, as the campaign moved onto younger age groups over the summer
with less than half of the public vaccinated there were signs that
resistance was building.
In a submarine, the admiral said, you are in a slow ship trying to catch
faster ships.
You have to position yourself and be smart about how to do it, he
said, and seize the opportunity when it arrives.
In July, Admiral Gouveia e Melo seized such an opportunity.
Protesters were blocking the entrance to a vaccination center in Lisbon,
so he donned his combat uniform and went there with no security detail.
I went through these crazy people, he said. They started to call me
murderer, murderer.
As the television cameras rolled, the admiral calmly stood his ground.
I said the murderer is the virus, Admiral Gouveia e Melo recalled. The
true killer, he said, would be people who live like it is the 13th
century without any notion of reality.
I attempted to communicate in a very true and honest way about all
doubts and problems, he said.
But not everybody welcomed his approach.
We dont really have a culture of questioning authorities, said Laura
Sanches, a clinical psychologist who has criticized Portugals mass
vaccination rollout as too militaristic and called for it to exclude
younger people.
And the way he always presented himself in camouflage army suits as
if he was fighting a war together with the language used by the media
and the politicians, has contributed to a feeling of fear that also
makes us more prone to obey and not question, she said.
Still, the public messaging campaign including an aggressive
television and media blitz made steady progress.
In the beginning, we had some 40 percent who were unsure, Admiral
Gouveia e Melo said. Now, according to polls, he said, only 2.2 percent
do not want the vaccine.
As he stepped down from the task force this week, the admiral said he
felt the country was on a good course. But, ever the submariner, he
cautioned that vigilance would remain essential to ensuring that this
war was won.
Marc Santora is the International News Editor based in London, focusing
on breaking news events. He was previously the Bureau Chief for East and
Central Europe based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from
Iraq and Africa.
@MarcSantoraNYT
Raphael Minder covers Spain and Portugal, based in Madrid. He previously
worked for Bloomberg News in Switzerland and for the Financial Times in
Paris, Brussels, Sydney and finally Hong Kong. @RaphaelMinder
e.html?campaign_id=57&emc=edit_ne_20211001&instance_id=41872&nl=evening-b
riefing®i_id=56173448&segment_id=70487&te=1&user_id=d4913d1af0612e6b21
c33637634f174a>
<https://tinyurl.com/yf65jdb2>
In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate.
Portugal is among the most highly vaccinated countries in the world.
Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who led the campaign, said there was
a key to his success: Keep politics out of it.
By Marc Santora and Raphael Minder.
Oct. 1, 2021, Updated 12:42 p.m. ET.
Portugals health care system was on the verge of collapse. Hospitals in
the capital, Lisbon, were overflowing and the authorities were asking
people to treat themselves at home. In the last week of January, nearly
2,000 people died as the virus spread.
The countrys vaccine program was in a shambles, so the government
turned to Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a former submarine squadron
commander, to right the ship.
Eight months later, Portugal is among the worlds leaders in
vaccinations, with roughly 86 percent of its population of 10.3 million
fully vaccinated. About 98 percent of all of those eligible for vaccines
meaning anyone over 12 have been fully vaccinated, Admiral Gouveia e
Melo said.
We believe we have reached the point of group protection and nearly
herd immunity, he said. Things look very good.
On Friday, Portugal ended nearly all of its coronavirus restrictions.
There has been a sharp drop in new cases, to about 650 a day, and
vanishingly few deaths.
Many Western nations fortunate enough to have abundant vaccine supplies
have seen inoculation rates plateau, with more than 20 percent of their
populations still unprotected. So other governments are looking to
Portugal for possible insights and are watching closely to see what
happens when nearly every eligible person is protected.
False dawns in the coronavirus pandemic have been as common as new
nightmare waves of infection. So Portugal could still see a setback as
the Delta variant continues to spread globally.
There have been worrying signs from Israel and elsewhere that protection
offered by vaccines can fade over time, and a worldwide debate is raging
over who should be offered booster shots and when.
Portugal may soon start offering boosters to older people and those
deemed clinically vulnerable, Admiral Gouveia e Melo said, and he was
confident they could all be reached by the end of December.
But for the moment, as bars and nightclubs buzz with life, infections
dwindle and deaths plummet, the countrys vaccination drive has
succeeded even after encountering many of the same hurdles that caused
others to flounder.
The same flood of misinformation about vaccines has filled the social
media accounts of the Portuguese. The country is run by a minority
left-wing government, a reflection of its political divisions. And,
according to public opinion polls, there was widespread doubt about the
vaccines when they first arrived.
Admiral Gouveia e Melo has been credited with turning it around. With a
background working on complicated logistical challenges in the military,
he was named in February to lead the national vaccination task force.
Standing 6 feet 3 inches, the admiral made it a point to wear only his
combat uniform in his many public and television appearances as he
sought to essentially draft the nation into one collective
pandemic-fighting force.
The first thing is to make this thing a war, Admiral Gouveia e Melo
said in an interview, recalling how he approached the job. I use not
only the language of war, but military language.
While politicians around the world have invoked a similar martial
rhetoric, he said it was critical to his success that he was widely seen
as detached from politics.
He quickly assembled a team of some three dozen people, led by elite
military personnel including mathematicians, doctors, analysts and
strategic experts from Portugals Army, Air Force and Navy.
Asked what other countries can do to bolster their own vaccination
efforts, he did not hesitate to offer his best advice.
They need to find people who are not politicians, he said.
Before the pandemic, Portugal was fortunate to have a robust national
vaccination program. It grew out of the countrys devastating experience
battling polio, which was still affecting the country after Admiral
Gouveia e Melo was born in 1960. He recalls when the daughter of a
family friend fell ill from the disease and the suffering that followed.
Manuela Ivone da Cunha, a Portuguese anthropologist who has studied
anti-vaccination movements, said that vaccine doubters and anti-vaxxers
are in the minority in Portugal, and they are also less vocal than they
are in many other countries.
Leonor Beleza, a former Portuguese health minister who is now the
president of the Champalimaud medical foundation, said Portugals
rollout clearly benefited from the discipline stemming from the
nomination of a military officer.
He formulated a communications policy about what was happening that
gave credibility and trust, she said.
As the task force devised the most efficient system to safely stream the
most people through inoculation centers, they used troops to build
confidence in the system. People could see the vaccines were safe as
soldier after soldier got shots.
At the same time, the task force made a point of showing doctors and
nurses getting their shots, as well, to drive home the message of
vaccine safety.
While other countries have featured doctors, nurses, police officers and
soldiers in their vaccine campaigns, Admiral Gouveia e Melo said the
consistency of the messaging was critical.
Still, as the campaign moved onto younger age groups over the summer
with less than half of the public vaccinated there were signs that
resistance was building.
In a submarine, the admiral said, you are in a slow ship trying to catch
faster ships.
You have to position yourself and be smart about how to do it, he
said, and seize the opportunity when it arrives.
In July, Admiral Gouveia e Melo seized such an opportunity.
Protesters were blocking the entrance to a vaccination center in Lisbon,
so he donned his combat uniform and went there with no security detail.
I went through these crazy people, he said. They started to call me
murderer, murderer.
As the television cameras rolled, the admiral calmly stood his ground.
I said the murderer is the virus, Admiral Gouveia e Melo recalled. The
true killer, he said, would be people who live like it is the 13th
century without any notion of reality.
I attempted to communicate in a very true and honest way about all
doubts and problems, he said.
But not everybody welcomed his approach.
We dont really have a culture of questioning authorities, said Laura
Sanches, a clinical psychologist who has criticized Portugals mass
vaccination rollout as too militaristic and called for it to exclude
younger people.
And the way he always presented himself in camouflage army suits as
if he was fighting a war together with the language used by the media
and the politicians, has contributed to a feeling of fear that also
makes us more prone to obey and not question, she said.
Still, the public messaging campaign including an aggressive
television and media blitz made steady progress.
In the beginning, we had some 40 percent who were unsure, Admiral
Gouveia e Melo said. Now, according to polls, he said, only 2.2 percent
do not want the vaccine.
As he stepped down from the task force this week, the admiral said he
felt the country was on a good course. But, ever the submariner, he
cautioned that vigilance would remain essential to ensuring that this
war was won.
Marc Santora is the International News Editor based in London, focusing
on breaking news events. He was previously the Bureau Chief for East and
Central Europe based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from
Iraq and Africa.
@MarcSantoraNYT
Raphael Minder covers Spain and Portugal, based in Madrid. He previously
worked for Bloomberg News in Switzerland and for the Financial Times in
Paris, Brussels, Sydney and finally Hong Kong. @RaphaelMinder