I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.” ~ Nietzsche

Judging by the current statistics, I live in a country where 83% of the population is fully vaccinated, as am I, and 88% have had the 1st dose. This puts Portugal on the 1st place as the country with highest vaccination rate in Europe, and I believe 2nd highest in the world. Here, vaccines are not taboo, and I can speak normally about the subject with anyone I meet. My social interactions are not huge but are quite broad; I meet people from many different walks of life. 

Interestingly, I  come from a country with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe. Bulgaria and Romania being ahead (I’m only taking into consideration EU countries, they are a few more with lower rates outside of the EU). I avoid vaccine conversations with my Croatians because it often feels like a bit of a conversation and a discussion, so I prefer to talk about other things. I often wondered which way I would sway if I was there, peer pressure and all. Especially after talking to a friend who, many moons ago when my niece was born and I voiced my concern over vaccines (based on hear-say, absolutely nothing else),  inspired me to get more facts on the matter, and told me a few things based on her informed knowledge. Now she was telling me how she plans to go get a vaccine, and is not afraid of it, but had fell ill every time she planed to go. We talk about mind/body connection as if it was ever a separate thing. Mind is body, body is mind. Doubt, for whatever reason is there, will reflect in the body.

Statistics are interesting and objective; we can tell a lot by looking at numbers if we manage to turn off our subjectivity or our confirmation bias which can easily make one plus one equal four. When looking at the statistics which are available at ourworldindata.org (others are not as accurate), but you need to check every European or EU country to get the full idea, you get an interesting picture that does tell a story. A story of past, present and most importantly – trust. Many articles have been written about this and I tend to agree, trust has a lot to do with how people reacted to different things during this pandemic. 

Portuguese nag about the government same as everywhere, but see that Portugal has risen from the ashes and it keeps rising. People from all parts of the world are flocking here and apart from seeing dozen daily posts “we’re moving to Portugal and were wondering about…” on a few expat groups on FB, I get someone I know or friends of a friend ask me about Portugal, with the intention to move here, every other week. I’m thinking of opening a part-time consulting business ;). I’m sure it’s not just for the weather. You won’t find Portugal on a list of the 5 most corrupt countries in Europe as you will Croatia (together with Romania and Bulgaria). There is more trust in the institutions. Even though often lost and sometimes incompetent as everywhere else, most believe the government here is not on a mission to hurt us but to protect us. They need healthy people to pay taxes, after all, sick ones are a burden to the system.

Another thing people often ask is how is it here regarding the pandemic. Portugal went through a bit of a ride at the beginning, being very lenient until the leniency over last Christmas cost many lives. Since then, the government realised things won’t get better if they play the more popular let people do what they want card, so from the most lenient country, it came to a point where I had to google how I need to behave when I step out of my house and if I can step out in the first place. I didn’t mind, I understand that change brings change and I believe that freedom is a state of mind, undefined and unrestricted by external circumstances. People here trusted enough and cooperated and it seems to have paid out. In a few days life is going back to normal officially as well (it felt normal for a while now) with little or no restrictions and, more importantly, a drop in cases as well as deaths. Here, we’re hoping that the pandemic is finally almost over, and the heard immunity will soon be reached (it might have already, we still don’t know what is the % for Covid). Same is happening in other countries with high vaccination rates. And no, not because there never was a pandemic and this was just a flu, but because one plus one still equals two.

Trust is the most important element of any relationship; romantic, family, friendships, business partnerships and interactions with strangers, as well as our relationship with the institutions and governments. Trust is also a foundation of cooperation in any mentioned relationship and this is the key. No trust = no cooperation. 

Trust was crucial for our survival back in the hunter-gatherer days. We depended on each others cooperation and exchange to survive. Being able to trust each other gave our ancestors something very important - a sense of safety. And safety remained the most important aspect of life for humans to this day. Our brains are wired to keep us safe from harm. To do that, they do crazy things sometimes. If something even reminds them of something threatening that once happened, they go into a full defence/protection mode. As someone who suffered from many anxiety attacks, I know now that my brain was only raising the alert and putting me in full-on fight/flight mode, protecting me from the horrible danger which was, in fact, nowhere to be seen. Ups.

Trust simply means that someone or something can be relied on to do what they say they will. In Croatia, you can definitely rely on the government NOT doing anything they said they will. This mistrust in the institutions and how it reflects on everything is not surprising, anything else but would be. 

Nietzsche said it perfectly “I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.” Once we’re lied to and mistrust is established, the doubt will always cast its shadow, regardless of how honest or truthful the other is from now on, or even someone else in the future. None of this is surprising, our brains are just trying to protect us. But it is very, very interesting and perhaps something to ponder on.