Benighted Vaccine Ignorance: Thinning of the Eastern European Population

"It's not a tall tale. I see that this disease kills, and strong immunity wouldn't be enough -- only a vaccine can offer protection."

"I'm really scared and I'm pleading with doctors to help me correct my mistake [buying a fake vaccination certificate for his travel documents hauling cargo to European points]."

"You can't heat this illness. You can buy a counterfeit certificate, but you can't buy antibodies."

"Ukrainians are slowly starting to realize there is no alternative to vaccination."

Andriy Melnik, truck driver, Kyiv, Ukraine

"We're seeing low vaccine uptake in a whole swath of countries across that part of the region [Eastern Europe]."

"Historical issues around vaccines come to play. In some countries, the whole vaccine issue is politicized."

Catherine Smallwood, Europe COVID-19 incident manager, World Health Organization

"We are on the verge of catastrophe, pushed by aggressive opponents of vaccination and the lack of funds."

"Regrettably, five workers in my ward have quit over the past week."

Dr.Serhiy Shvets, head, surgical ward, Biliaivka Hospital, Ukraine

"I'm weeping in despair when I see that 99 percent of patients in serious condition with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, and those people could have protected themselves."

"We are left struggling to save them without sufficient drugs and resources."

"Fake stories have spread widely, making people believe in microchips and genetic mutations."

:Some Orthodox priests have openly and aggressively urged people not to get vaccinated, and social networks have been filled with the most absurd rumours."

"Ukrainians have learned to distrust any authorities' initiatives, and vaccination isn't an exclusion."

Dr.Olha Kobevko infectious disease specialist, Chernivtsi Hospital, Ukraine 

A medic tends to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Pirogov hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, October 15, 2021. Photo: October 15, 2021. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

 

On the African continent, populations vulnerable to the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID in every country have little option over whether or not to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus. They haven't the opportunity, since vaccines of any type and origin are scarce, and where vaccines are available they're short-dated and there is a serious lack of syringes. The WHO  calls this lack of equity. It is the wealthy countries of the world that are swimming in vaccines.

And there anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant people in significant numbers represent the only deterrence to having the majority of any population inoculated against COVID. The promises made by advanced countries in the West with ample access to medical equipment and vaccine doses to provide the WHO vaccine-sharing program Covax with doses for the less advanced countries of the world are not meeting their obligations. In Europe there is no shortage of vaccines. The EU is acknowledged as having a high rate of vaccine coverage altogether.

And then, there is Eastern Europe, a dismal failure in vaccine uptake by its populations. Unsurprisingly, as a result of resistance to vaccines, the countries of Eastern Europe are facing a catastrophic rise of     COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Exceptions to the widespread trend of vaccine rejection are the Baltic nations, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary. Public distrust is driving a low uptake of vaccines in other Eastern European countries, however.

 

Medical workers carry a patient suspected of having coronavirus on a stretcher at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021    AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

 

There were 1,159 recorded COVID-related deaths in Russia in 24 hours, last week, the largest daily death count since the beginning of the pandemic. Roughly a third of the country's 146 million population has been fully vaccinated. In response, the Kremlin ordered a nonworking period to last to November 7. In Hungary private companies can require their employees to be vaccinated if they want to retain their employment, and government employees are required to be be vaccinated. 

Poland reported its highest number of daily infections at over 8,000 last Thursday. A mere 15 percent of the adult population in Ukraine is fully vaccinated, representing the second-lowest rate in Europe, following Armenia's 7 percent. Teachers, government employees and other workers are required to be fully vaccinated by November 8 in Ukraine to avoid suspension in pay. People may not board planes, trains or long-distance buses without proof of vaccination or a negative test.

A black market in counterfeit documents has emerged with fake vaccination certificates selling for $100 to $300. Police have opened 800 criminal cases into workers at 15 hospitals in Ukraine being involved in counterfeit certificates, with 100 mobile units deployed to track down users, according to the Interior Minister. Last week, a former lawmaker was among those arrested. In the western city of Chernivtsi, ten to 23 patients die daily of COVID, with those aged in their 30s and 40s impacted.

Believing the rumours that Western vaccines contain microchips to control people, Lidia Buiko, 72, chose the Chinese Sinovac vaccine: "Priests have urged us to think twice about getting immunized -- it would be impossible to get rid of the chip", she explained, waiting for her injection in a Kyiv clinic. It is estimated that roughly half of Ukrainian medical workers express vaccine reluctance. "The risks of misinformation to vaccination have never been  higher; nor have the stakes", commented     UNICEF representative in Ukraine Murat Sahin.

About 35 percent of vaccine-eligible adults in Romania are fully immunized where tighter restrictions are in effect requiring vaccination certificates for attending a gym, the movies or shopping malls. With a 10 p.m. curfew, shops close at 9 p.m., bars and nightclubs shuttered for 30 days, and masks are mandatory in public. 

 

Bulgaria has a quarter of its adult population fully vaccinated and reports record numbers of infections and deaths. Official data identify Bulgaria with the highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the 27-nation European Union, with 94 percent of deaths representing the unvaccinated.Authorities in Georgia launched a lottery of cash prizes to entice the population to be vaccinated, where 33 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

"[So many are] afraid of the vaccines because of the immense [amount of] fake information that has flooded social media and TV."

"Every day we see people arriving with shortness of breath and most of them are feeling sorry for not being vaccinated."

Dr.Dragos Zaharia, Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumology, Bucharest

"[The government's information campaign] was not designed according to the peculiarities of our country."

"The emphasis should have been done, for instance, on the Georgian Orthodox church, because we have many instances when priests are saying that vaccination is a sin."

Dr.Bidzina Kulumbegov, Georgia

A healthcare worker is waiting for patients at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at The Military Medical Academy in Sofia.