“The safest way back to normality is through vaccination”

When the Fall Semester gets under way, 29,000 students will be thronging the halls of UZH. Most of them are vaccinated, but a minority are not (yet). Their reasons for hesitation are varied:

• Some students think that if they are young and healthy and their parents and grandparents have been vaccinated, that will do and their personal risk of contracting the disease is negligible.
• A few students are distrustful of the rapidly developed vaccine and fear undesirable side effects in the longer term.
• Others have heard about fellow students or friends who spent the night in bed with chills and fever after getting the jab and worry that they might get a severe reaction too.
• Some female students are troubled by the rumor that vaccination can make women infertile.
• And then there are those who just don’t like feeling pressurized into doing something.

Good reasons for vaccination

UZH virologist Alexandra Trkola understands and respects all these positions. But, she says, students need to weigh up for themselves whether the reasons in favor of vaccination are stronger than the above doubts. Namely, the more people are vaccinated, the quicker we can do away with the tedious restrictions in everyday life. The more UZH members who are vaccinated, the better the teaching and learning experience will be, because meeting others and having face-to-face interactions are a vital part of university life. In addition, vaccination has been shown to protect against severe symptoms of Covid and against Long Covid – a consequence of coronavirus infection that can also affect younger people and can have a huge impact on wellbeing for months.

Alexandra Trkola has been on the front lines of the pandemic since the very beginning. The director of the Institute of Medical Virology knows what she is talking about when she recommends – as the Executive Board of the University does – that young and healthy students should get vaccinated against Covid-19. She explicitly includes young women in her recommendation, because the rumors that the vaccination makes women infertile are simply not true, says Trkola.

If you still haven’t decided whether to get jabbed or not, why not take five minutes out of your day to watch Alexandra Trkola’s video and set your mind at rest.