BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Vaccines from the West, Russia or China? A head? This dilemma faces the nations of Southeast Europe, where coronavirus vaccination campaigns begin slowly, overshadowed by heated political debates and conspiracy theories.
In countries such as the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania and Bulgaria, vaccine skeptics have included former presidents and even some doctors. Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic was one of those who said he did not want to be forced to inoculate himself.
False beliefs that coronavirus is a hoax or that vaccines would inject microchips into people have spread to countries that were once under harsh communist rule. Those who once underwent mass inoculations routinely are deeply divided on whether they want to get the vaccines.
“There is a direct link between support for conspiracy theories and skepticism towards vaccination,” a recent Balkan study warned. “A majority across the region has no plans to get the vaccine, a proportion considerably lower than the rest of Europe, where the majority are in favor of getting the vaccine.”
Only about 200,000 people applied for the vaccine in Serbia, a country of 7 million, in the days after authorities opened the procedure. By contrast, 1 million Serbs signed up for 100 euros ($ 120) on the first day the government offered aid to the pandemic.
Hoping to encourage vaccination, Serbian officials have been shot on television. However, they themselves have been divided on whether they want to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, made in the west, or the Sputnik V from Russia, more divisions in a country that formally seeks membership in the European Union, but in which many favor closer ties with Moscow.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday received a shipment of one million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, saying he would receive a shot to prove he was safe.
“Serbs prefer Russian vaccine,” said a recent headline from Informer, a pro-government tabloid, as officials announced that 38% of those who have asked to be shot favor Russian vaccine, while 31% wants the Pfizer-BioNTech version: an approximate division between pro-Russians and pro-Westerners in Serbia.
In neighboring Bosnia, a war-torn country that remains ethnically divided between Serbs, Bosnians and Croats, politics is also a factor, as half of Serbs seemed to opt for the Russian vaccine, while the Croatian-Bosnian side he will probably convert to Westerners.
Sasa Milovanovic, a 57-year-old real estate agent from Belgrade, sees all vaccines as part of the “global manipulation” of the pandemic.
“People are locked up, no longer have lives and live in a state of hysteria and fear,” he said.
Djokovic has said he was against being forced to take a coronavirus vaccine to travel and compete, but kept an open mind. The top-ranked tennis player and his wife tested positive in June after a series of exhibition matches with zero social distancing that he organized in the Balkans. They and their foundation have donated one million euros ($ 1.1 million) to buy ventilators and other medical equipment for hospitals in Serbia.
Serbian Health Ministry official Mirsad Djerlek described the vaccine’s response as “satisfactory”, but warned state broadcaster RTS that “people in rural areas often believe in conspiracy theories.” , and that is why we should talk to them and explain that the vaccine is the only way out in this situation. “
A study by the Balkan Policy Advisory Group on Europe, published before the start of the regional vaccination campaign in December, concluded that almost 80% of citizens of the Western Balkan countries striving to join the EU believe conspiracy theories against viruses. About half of them will refuse to get vaccinated, he said.
Unfounded theories claim that the virus is not real or that it is a firearm created by the US or its opponents. Another popular hoax claims that Microsoft founder Bill Gates uses COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in the 7 billion people on the planet.
A low level of information about the virus and vaccines, distrust of governments and repeated claims by authorities that foreigners are harassing their countries help explain the high prevalence of these beliefs, according to the group. reflection of the Balkans.
Similar trends have been seen even in some Eastern European Union countries.
In Bulgaria, widespread conspiracy theories hampered previous efforts to deal with a measles outbreak. Surveys suggested that distrust of vaccines remains high, even as coronavirus cases continue to rise. A recent Gallup International survey found that 30% of respondents want to get vaccinated, 46% will refuse and 24% are undecided.
Bulgarian doctors have tried to change their attitude. Dr. Stefan Konstantinov, former Minister of Health, joked that people in neighboring Greece should be told to close tourist sites to tourists who are not vaccinated, because “this would ensure that approximately 70% of the population would hurry to get punched “.
In the Czech Republic, where polls show 40% reject vaccination, protesters in a large rally against government virus restrictions in Prague demanded that vaccinations not be mandatory. Former President Vaclav Klaus, a fierce critic of the government’s pandemic response, told the crowd that vaccines are not a solution.
“They say everything will be solved by a miracle vaccine,” said Klaus, 79, who insists people should be exposed to the virus to gain immunity, which experts reject. “It simply came to our notice then. … I will not be vaccinated. ”
Hungarian populist authorities have taken a hard line against virus misinformation, but vaccine rejection is still expected to be around 30%. Parliament passed emergency powers in March that allow authorities to prosecute anyone who is considered to “successfully inhibit the defense” against the virus, including “fear” or spreading fake news. At least two people who criticized the government’s response to the pandemic on social media were arrested, but neither was formally charged.
Romania’s Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said he relies on family doctors to “inform, schedule and monitor people after the vaccine” and that his ministry will offer bonuses to medical workers based on the number of people who access on board. Asked whether these incentives would fuel vaccination propaganda, Voiculescu said, “I’m more interested in doctors’ views on the issue than vaccinators.”
Dr. Ivica Jeremic, who has worked with virus patients in Serbia since March and tested positive in November, hopes vaccination programs will gain momentum once people overcome the fear of the unknown.
“People will realize that the vaccine is the only way to get back to normal life,” he said.
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The writers of the Associated Press, Veselin Toshkov, in Sofia, Bulgaria; Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic; Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary; and Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.
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