The Western University of Timișoara upholds its role as the first comprehensive university of the western region, tenaciously seeking to develop, in addition to the achievements in education and research – our fundamental goals – also concerns in the sphere of social responsibility and community involvement.
The whole year 2020 was dominated by contradictions, unknowns, fears, but also by challenges and new risks assumed, in front of which the academic community of the West University of Timișoara reacted with a lot of energy, successfully passing through one of the most unexpected periods of its evolution, just as it happened with the entire university environment and with society as a whole.
Almost a year after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, international scientific networks have succeeded in developing effective vaccines against this extremely aggressive virus. Despite widespread skepticism, science has found an antidote, now in distribution worldwide. The efforts of the states, of the European Community, of the Romanian state, are visible, they have made vaccination against the SARS-Cov-2 virus possible in Romania as well, starting at the end of last year.
Unfortunately, rumours, poor information, uncertainty and the low horizon of scientific knowledge and critical thinking lead to a disadvantageous situation, in which appreciable segments of the general population, and even segments of people belonging to risk groups, do not understand the demonstrated effectiveness of vaccination. This phenomenon of a mistaken understanding of the freedom of choice in the administration of the SARS-Cov-2 vaccine, has led to a dangerous fact for our immediate future, especially for those in the sensitive education sector. Estimates show that the percentage of those who intend to get vaccinated, from the segment of employees in the pre-university sector, is below 50%, and the percentage in the case of university employees does not exceed 60%. These are figures that worry us all, because if teachers and academics do not understand the individual and community effectiveness of vaccination, then it is quite difficult to talk about an example of the one from the chair given to the new generations.
In the set of reactions from the academic communities of Romanian universities, the percentage of pro-vaccination reactions in the academic community of the West University of Timișoara is located at a very good favorability rate, over 70% of UVT employees wanting to be included in the vaccination campaign for SARS-Cov-2.
Due to this legitimate pro-vaccination position, expressed without a doubt by the UVT academic community, but also because the general level of favorability for the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is still low in society, the Western University of Timișoara assumes the responsibility it has in the local community and in society by promoting a categorical pro-vaccination message. Thus, starting from January 20, through Social Media communication channels and through online communication, UVT runs the campaign "We're back to normal!". The first production of this campaign, made by television UVT-TV, includes the message of professor Adriana Babeți, well-known writer and editor, awarded in 2020 with the title of Knight of Public Health Protection, in recognition of her exceptional involvement in promoting safety measures against the pandemic.
The rector of UVT, prof. univ. dr. Marilen Gabriel Pirtea, launches an exhortation, in the spirit of the message of the new pro-vaccination campaign: "Online education methods have proven their limits. Collective immunization is the safest solution for returning to school and university premises. The vaccine for COVID-19 administered in Romania is safe. I get vaccinated too!".
We invite you to find in the UVT pro-vaccination campaign personalities and representatives of the institutional partners of the Western University of Timișoara, who found it necessary to publicly convey a message of confidence in science, medicine and biology, in state institutions, in the European Community , which together guarantee that vaccination is safe and will protect us from the dangers of a prolongation of the pandemic crisis. We thank the institutional partners and the distinguished guests who have become reliable allies of UVT, in the pro-vaccination campaign, joining the campaign from the pre-university environment of Timisoara, the cultural institutions of the city, or as artistic and literary personalities, colleagues and friends from organizations of civil society and from the Timisoara non-governmental environment.
We are back to normal!
