Joris Weissen: “It is statistically clear that vaccination significantly reduces the chance of hospitalization”

The first vaccination campaign was over and everyone who wanted it got an injection. Because of the fourth wave of aura, there was a third strike on the table for everyone now. To provide an overview of vaccination numbers, Joris Vaesen began creating a program immunization plate To display numbers clearly. In this episode of hack radio Explains more about the vaccination scale.

The need for transparent information

Weissen’s idea to develop the Vaccination Scale came about because he noticed that transparent information was needed at the start of the campaign. Several numbers were available about the number of infections and hospitalizations, but there was no unequivocal number about the progress of the vaccination campaign, Weissen says. The dashboard provides a better view of who’s next and the differences between regions.

The website developed by Vaesen does not provide information about the number of infections, hospitalizations, or the number of deaths. Platforms and visualizations were already available for these numbers, Weissen says. “The number of vaccinations was a void that I entered.” Moreover, Weissen does this completely independently and therefore is not tied to the government. “Of course we work with data from the government, but the choice of how we perceive this data is entirely up to us.” It also appears that political independence is important for visitors to the platform.

fell into the void

The large number of visitors to the vaccination meter shows that Weissen has already been plunged into a vacuum and that transparent information about vaccination is needed. The data also appeared on news websites and was picked up by programs such as De Afspraak which increased its popularity. Popularity confirmed Weissen’s skepticism that there was a need for visualization and a platform on which people could follow progress, without being politically biased.

Vaesen will continue to update the vaccination scale even after the first vaccination campaign has been completed. “New insights are still needed, especially now that it is clear that a booster injection will be given. At the start of the vaccination campaign, performance was particularly important. At the time, the scale was the only platform that correlated the number of vaccines being delivered and administered, Weissen says. Today it is still important to highlight the interactive part in the vaccination numbers. Visitors to the site can decide for themselves which data they find important and want to search.

From exponential to linear

The number of doses administered has moved from exponential growth to linear growth, while the number of vaccines administered continues to grow exponentially. There are currently a lot of vaccines in stock, but this is not unused stock because people over 65 are now eligible for the third shot, Weisen says. “If we want to give everyone a booster dose, we’ll also need that stockpile.” In addition, there are vaccines that are being provided but are not available because they are moving to countries where there is still a shortage. For the first time, Vaesen can actually tell us that there will also be a graph on the dashboard with the number of vaccines given to other countries.

Differences between regions

The dashboard also clearly shows that there are differences in vaccination coverage between regions. In Brussels, far fewer people were vaccinated than in Flanders. This difference was also evident in the number of vaccines delivered to the regions. They are supplied from the federal level to the three regions, but since there is an excess of supply in Brussels, the federal level has requested that they be delivered back to Flanders. So, there really is a difference in willingness to vaccinate between regions, Weissen says.

A wave of vaccinators?

55% of those hospitalized at the moment have been vaccinated, so 45% have not. For some, this is evidence that vaccines won’t work, but it’s not statistically true, Weissen says. The share of the vaccinated in the total population is much greater than that of the unvaccinated, so it is logical that in absolute numbers there are more vaccines in the hospital, proportionality must be taken into account. But it is clear from the numbers that vaccination significantly reduces the chance of hospitalization.

Article editor: Rani de Linere