At the beginning of August 2020, Russia was placed at the forefront of the global race that had begun to achieve a vaccine against the new coronavirus.
President Vladimir Putin said to the world that his country already had the first approved vaccine and announced that in October of that year they would launch a mass vaccination campaign .
Sputnik V, as it was baptized, had been developed by the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya) together with the Ministry of Defense.
However, a little over a year later, Russia is the fifth country in the world that has registered the highest number of infections (more than 7.8 million) and more deaths (217. 000) , according to data from the Johns Hopkins University of the United United.
The Eurasian country is currently experiencing a strong wave of infections that also make it the fourth country in the world with the highest number of accumulated cases in the last four weeks: almost 663. 000.
During 13 of the s latest 19 days, the country has registered new records of daily deaths caused by the coronavirus, the highest number being Recent this Friday: 999 deaths.
He also established a new maximum record of confirmed infections: 32. 196.
The harsh wave of infections is putting great pressure on the available health services.
Denis Protsenko, chief medical officer of the main Moscow hospital dedicated to covid patients – 19, warned that hospital beds are being filled with patients in critical condition, according to the newspaper Moscow Times .
How is this possible? The cause lies in the low number of vaccinated people in the country: only 31% of the inhabitants of Russia are fully vaccinated and only an additional 3% are partially vaccinated, according to figures from Our World in Data from the University of Oxford.
Vaccine resistance
Over the past year, the Sputnik V vaccine served to shore up Russia’s international image and was embraced in many parts of the world. world, including Latin America, where its use has been approved in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil and Chile, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
In some of these countries, problems later arose due to lack of supply and there were complaints from people who, after receiving the first dose, had to wait much longer than expected to receive the second injection.
- Why there is a shortage of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and what will happen with those who received the first dose and cannot access the second
In Russia, however, The low number of vaccinated has not to do with the lack of vaccines, but with the population’s resistance to getting them.
In a survey by the Levada Center, an institute specialized in opinion studies public in Russia, conducted in the past 31 August, on 54% of those consulted said or that I will not put to the vaccine if it is not mandatory, while 38% said they would.
The authorities are clear about the problem they are facing.
“Certainly, the figures they are terrible. It is alarming. The main reason is the low levels of vaccination “, said last October 5 the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov.
The official acknowledged that the virus was becoming more aggressive and that the level of vaccination is not sufficient. ”
Despite everything, the Kremlin has ruled out for now imposing sanctions against those citizens who do not want to be vaccinated.
As Peskov said in the past 11 of October, these types of measures go against the “social nature” of the Russian State, so it is not realistic to propose them.
He indicated that what corresponds in this situation is to appeal to conscience of citizens to understand that “there is no other way to protect their lives than by getting vaccinated.”
General mistrust
But why are there so many Russians who do not want to be vaccinated?
“Many have not been vaccinated not because they are convinced against vaccines, but because they have decided to wait,” said anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, senior researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
In an interview with the Russian BBC service, Arkhipova explained that the decision of these people is based on their distrust of medicine and the political elite, but also on the basis of advice from your trusted doctors.
“In Soviet times, parents were not allowed to evade vaccinations. For this reason, the refusal to be vaccinated was a form of dissent and, due to this, in some families of the intelligentsia this was accepted and even encouraged ”, he pointed out.
At the same time, the high level of distrust that exists in the country towards medicine and towards politics is also reflected in the rejection of the vaccine.
“Much people say they’re not ready to get vaccinated because they don’t trust the way Sputnik V was designed . They are extremely upset by the lack of information about how it was done, what were its side effects, how many people got sick, how severe or mild the disease was, how many of those vaccinated were hospitalized, etc ”, added Arkhipova.
He explained that although Russians do not trust medicine, they do trust the doctors they know, but this – paradoxically – has not helped to promote vaccinations.
“ Many people have been discouraged from getting vaccinated by so-called ‘ family doctors ‘ “, he pointed out.
He explained that in Russia vaccination protocols for people who have different diseases are not well developed, something that makes it difficult to Doctors work.
“It is just very intimidating for a doctor to take responsibility for recommending vaccines. They often do not know exactly how the vaccine will affect their patient’s illness. It is much easier to say: do not get vaccinated ”, said Arkhipova.
In relation to the way in which Mistrust towards the authorities affects vaccinations in Russia, the expert pointed out that in the interviews they do in their studies, people mention that officials and high-ranking doctors can lie to citizens without having to face any consequences.
“ Lying is not something that is punished in Russia. For the same reason, some people trust imported vaccines more because they believe that if Pfizer’s manufacturers lie, they will be punished for it ”, he pointed out.
An additional element that would affect This rejection of vaccines is people’s ignorance about how their own body works.
“Many people do not understand what a virus is, how it operates and enters the body, or what are antibodies. Therefore, such a person has a reduced critical capacity in relation to any rumor, “he said.
And in Russia, as in many other parts of the world, hoaxes and misinformation against vaccines have been abundant.
According to Arkhipova told the BBC, until July of this year they had accumulated a database with some 314 different rumors about the coronavirus , of which 83 are related to vaccines and had been shared 2.6 million times on social networks.
This is another factor that makes it difficult to persuade Russians about the advisability of getting the covid vaccine – 19.
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