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Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Judging by how low the vaccination rate is for rich and developed Switzerland in comparison to poorer countries like Spain or Portugal, I stopped assuming that most of the population there is "highly educated" as you put it. No offense to the Swiss.

Maybe some Swiss can clarify why their population is so anti-vax, as it boggles my mind.

My point is not to say that such a direct democratic system wouldn't be effective, I'm just saying that correlation != causation, as in the case of Switzerland, I attribute its success as a country more to it being a neutral banking heaven for the world elite for decades and being in a very fortunate geo-political location that was spared the destruction of war which helped it attract tons of foreign talent and capital, rather than to its direct democratic system and domestic educated population. I could also be wrong of course.

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I'm sorry but you are spreading misinformation. The Swiss are not anti-vax in general and they are not against the Covid vaccine. Switzerland is 63.7% vaccinated.

In any case not getting the vaccine doesn't make someone uneducated. Switzerland has some of the best schools and universities in the world. In 2018, 44% of 25-64 year-olds had completed a tertiary qualification in Switzerland, compared to 39% on average across OECD countries. [1]

[1] https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/EAG2019...

>I'm sorry but you are spreading misinformation.

Which misinformation did I spread?

>Switzerland is 63.7% vaccinated.

Which I said I find it to be very low in comparison to countries like Spain and Portugal where the rate is nearly 100% so having only 64% points to a large number of anti-vaxers similar to Eastern Europe.

>In any case not getting the vaccine doesn't make someone uneducated.

No? Then what does it make the other 36% who refuse to get vaccinated? En-masse refusal of a potentially life saving vaccine that will help end the pandemic doesn't really scream intelligence and education, does it?

creating your own definitions or metrics as to what would qualify someone as educated isn't helpful in a discussion.

you are also making assumptions that those who aren't yet vaccinated are anti-vax, which again isn't always the case they may have their own reasons for delaying or perhaps are perfectly fine with vaccines in general but distrust this particular one for whatever reason.

A person can be educated person can still be an unreasonable one.

>they may have their own reasons for delaying or perhaps are perfectly fine with vaccines in general but distrust this particular one for whatever reason.

So what does the swiss population know that the scientific and medical communities don't?

Switzerland has 64% of its population vaccinated [1]. It's not that low compared to other Western countries. It's as much as the United States [2]. What makes you say that?

[1] https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m...

[2] https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m...

And where did I mention the US?

Portugal is almost 100% vaccinated, Switzerland is at 64% which puts it closer to the former comunist EU members like Slovakia.

That's a massive difference, and to me, says something about the country's population/society.

Spain trows Musicians into jails for criticizing the King...

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