President Niinistö plans to take vaccine as soon as possible

President Sauli Niinistö responded to listeners’ questions on an Yle Radio 1 call-in programme on Saturday. Image: Vesa Moilanen / Lehtikuva

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on Saturday that he plans to take the coronavirus vaccination as soon as it is his turn.

The 72-year-old Niinistö was responding to a listener’s question on an Yle Radio 1 call-in programme on the eve of Finnish Independence Day.

When programme host Marjo Näkki suggested that the president would likely be among the first to get the coronavirus vaccine, Niinistö replied that he did not know.

“No lottery number yet”

“No-one has given me a lottery number yet,” he quipped.

Niinistö was also asked for his thoughts on some people’s suspicious attitude toward taking the coronavirus vaccine.

A day earlier, the leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published a survey indicating that only just over half of Finns were ready to take the coronavirus vaccine if it becomes possible in early 2021.

Niinistö said in his view the results reflect a general level of concern about the virus, and that everything about it – including treatment methods – arouses confusion in people.

“I’m quite convinced that once the vaccinations get underway and we see that they have a [life-]saving benefit, then certainly many will reconsider the issue,” said the president.

Earlier on Saturday, Taneli Puumalainen, chief physician at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), told Yle that the first batches of coronavirus vaccine will probably be delivered to Finland between Christmas and New Year’s following EU approval, and that injections can begin quickly after that.

The annual Independence Day gala at the Presidential Palace, usually the most-watched broadcast of the year, will be a mostly virtual event this year.