When the well-known Polish journalist Hanna Lis recently tweeted about how she had suffered anaphylactic shock — i.e., a life-threatening allergic reaction — social media blew up. Though Lis described the experience as the "worst trauma" of her life, she did not specify what exactly caused the shock. Nevertheless, her tweet sparked a heated debate about the potential side effects of the newly developed coronavirus vaccines. Critics were quick to reference reports from Britain and the US about how coronavirus jabs had caused anaphylactic shocks. It is telling that the tweet struck a chord with so many Poles. According to polls, most people feel uneasy about the country's COVID-19 immunization program. Historically, the population has been broadly skeptical of vaccinations.
Led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, Poland's government has done little to counter this skepticism. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has reported on the arrival of vaccines doses in near daily press conferences and urged the population to get inoculated. He has enthusiastically promised that Poland will soon "return to normal."