Trust, Vaccines and Democracy: The Situation in European Countries and the Italian Case

The issue of trust, a central element in modernity not only in terms of personal ties but also in terms of trust in the institutions with which we share our daily lives, has once again come to the forefront of sociological reflection on the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic. If, in fact, in the initial phase, faced with a new and alarming phenomenon, there was a ‘honeymoon’ effect between citizens and institutions, as the months went by, doubts, criticism, protests and opposition began (resulting in part in a distrust of vaccinating against the virus). Comparing the data available for European countries, a link seems to emerge, quite clearly, between a low level of trust in institutions and a high level of vaccination hesitation, as shown by the cases of Eastern countries on the one hand and Northern European countries on the other. In this scenario, Italy plays a special role: although traditionally a country with very low levels of trust in institutions, it has a high percentage of vaccinated people that can be attributed not only to purely political elements, but also to structural data, starting with demographic ones