The Russian Covid-19 vaccine is embraced abroad and stamped at home

Behind the skepticism, there remain doubts about the rapid development of Sputnik V and an ingrained distrust of authorities due to the Soviet past in the country. Polls show, for example, that many Russians believe that the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon. At the same time, surveys point to a strong current of Covid-19 disbelief in Russia.

While coronavirus infections have declined in Russia, the slow acceptance of the vaccine leaves the country vulnerable to a new upsurge. Russia has had more than four million infections, the fourth highest in the world. Vaccination by vaccines could undermine the government’s target of vaccinating about 60% of the population by summer.

“We were on an equal footing with everyone else to develop the vaccine, but we are now behind with its administration,” said Anton Gopka, dean of the Faculty of Technology Management and Innovations at ITMO University in St. Petersburg. Capital. “Ultimately, the big risk is that it will prolong the pandemic here.”

This is not a concern for Vadim Ivanov, a 55-year-old manager of the St. Petersburg city maintenance department. He does not trust the government or the healthcare system and believes the threat of Covid-19 is overwhelming.

‘I do not get a vaccine because I do not believe in the coronavirus; it’s all about deception, ”says Mr. Ivanov, who usually does not wear a mask and rarely takes social distance. “People say it’s all nonsense, it’s all far-fetched, it’s all invented.”

To speed up the deployment, Russian authorities scrapped preferential vaccination groups and launched the vaccination campaign in January for all. Vaccination centers have been set up in food banks, opera houses and shopping malls, with some shops offering free ice cream for each shot.

“There is no shortage of vaccines,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told reporters recently. “But one can not say that there is a hurry” to get a chance, “he said. Officials expect demand for Sputnik V to increase as more Russians learn about the benefits of the vaccine. In addition to Sputnik V, Russia has approved two other Covid-19 vaccines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who regularly praises the vaccine on national television and in his talks with foreign leaders, has yet to be vaccinated himself. The Kremlin said Mr. Putin plans to get a vaccine in late summer or early fall after consulting with doctors.

“The government needs to do a better job of communicating the benefits of the vaccine,” he said. Gopka said. “And of course, people will become more comfortable if the head of state accepts it.”

The challenges of rolling out the shot over the vast land mass of Russia amid harsh winter conditions also hampered the campaign. Putin said on Thursday that nine of the 85 regions in Russia had not yet started vaccinating.

The Sputnik V shot has had challenges from the start. It was approved in August, a few months after development began and before large-scale clinical trials were conducted. When Russia began rolling it out in December, production problems meant the country could only deliver a fraction of the doses officials had initially promised.

A peer-reviewed study, published last month in the Lancet, a British medical journal, found that the vaccine was 91.6% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and had no serious side effects . Russian drugmakers have meanwhile increased production. Indeed, some analysts expect a large amount of vaccines if demand does not increase.

Abroad, Russia has campaigned for public relations, including video updates in English and the maintenance of a Twitter account for Sputnik V. According to U.S. officials, Russian intelligence agencies have launched a campaign to undermine confidence in Pfizer. . Inc.’s

and other Western vaccines, use online publications that have questioned the development and safety of the vaccines over the past few months. The Kremlin denies these allegations.

More than 40 other countries have authorized Sputnik V for emergency use. Members of the European Union, Slovakia and Hungary, approved Sputnik V and on Thursday, the bloc’s drug regulator launched a formal investigation that could lead to the authorization of the shot.

But many Russians do not remain convinced.

A poll released this week by independent pollster Levada Center showed that only 30% of Russians are willing to get a Sputnik V shot, up from 38% in December, with many references to possible side effects effects and doubts about the clinical trials.

‘The vaccine has not yet been fully tested and [the mass vaccination campaign] is in fact a trial carried out en masse on the people of Russia without their knowledge, ‘said Tatyana Andreyeva, a 39-year-old director of human resources in Kaliningrad. She said she would not be vaccinated.

Me. Andreyeva’s 10-year-old son became ill in Covid-19 last October, but recovered quickly without infecting the rest of the family. “I do not consider Covid to be a serious and very contagious disease,” she said.

Worldwide, Russians are among the biggest vaccine skeptics. An Ipsos survey released in February showed that 42% of Russians get a vaccine, compared to 71% in the US and 57% in France.

In addition to doubts about Sputnik V itself, analysts cite a general lack of confidence in authorities and the health system.

Only 37% of Russians are satisfied with the quality of their healthcare system, compared to a global average of 65%, according to a 2019 Gallup poll.

After the end of the Soviet Union, the financing of the health care system collapsed, many highly skilled medical professionals emigrated and medical research slowed down. In 2010, the government launched an ambitious plan to improve the quality of healthcare in Russia and upgrade medical facilities. But by 2019, the number of hospitals and available beds has declined, and officials said the quality of services has deteriorated sharply.

“No one has touched the system infrastructure since the late ’50s,” Veronika Skvortsova, then health minister, said in 2019.

The distrust in the government is a legacy of the Russian communist past, when Russians’ suspicion of authorities led many to rely on word-of-mouth and other informal sources of information, according to Margarita Zavadskaya, research fellow in political science. the European University in St. Petersburg.

The Levada survey found that two-thirds of respondents believe the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon. Among Russians who tend to rely on family and friends for information, almost three-quarters believe it is a biological weapon.

“There is a pattern of extremely low confidence in all kinds of official authorities, other political institutions and the health care system,” she said. Zavadskaya said.

Mrs. Andreyeva in Kaliningrad said she was trying not to rely on Russian health care in general.

“There is no help, with exceptional exceptions,” she said. “The principle is: help yourself.”

—Valentina Ochirova contributed to this article.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at [email protected]