KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – After receiving the first vaccination of coronavirus vaccine, Ukraine has entered a new fight against the pandemic – and convinced its widely reluctant people to take the chance.
Although infections are on the rise, Ukrainians are increasingly opposed to vaccination: a poll released by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology earlier this month found that 60% of the country’s residents do not want to be vaccinated, compared to 40% a month before. . The nationwide poll of 1,207 had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
The resistance seems to be rooted in the long-standing suspicion about vaccines dating back to the Soviet era, which is reinforced by politicians’ allegations about low-quality vaccines, corruption scandals and misinformation spread through social media. Even more surprisingly, the reluctance still occurs even among those who take the greatest risk and administer life-saving drugs to others every day: medical workers.
In the mining town of Selydove, 700 kilometers east of Kiev, only 5% of the medical staff agreed to be vaccinated. Those who deteriorated included Olena Obyedko, a 26-year-old nurse who works at the hospital’s intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients, where people die every week.
‘I decided not to be vaccinated. I doubt the quality of the vaccine. “I am afraid there will be side effects,” she said.
So few people chose to get the shots that the mobile brigade that came to Selydove to administer them eventually vaccinated themselves so as not to waste the vaccine.
“Such a low number of vaccines is related to a low level of confidence in the vaccine that has entered Ukraine,” said Brigade Chief Olena Marchenko about the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India. “This is due to prejudice and information that is spread on social networks. People read a lot, they have a negative attitude towards the Indian vaccine. ”
Prominent politicians have fueled the suspicion.
Former President Petro Poroshenko said in parliament this month that he had asked doctors in one region why there was resistance to vaccination, saying: “Because they brought shit. And they brought it because of corruption and incompetence. ”
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko added to the dissatisfaction by demanding that parliament pass a law to compensate those who experience the side effects of vaccines.
Scandal for vaccine corruption began even before the first doses arrived in the country. The National Bureau of Corruption in Ukraine reports that an investigation has been launched into an agreement in September to buy 1.9 million doses of Chinese Sinovac vaccine at 504 hryvnia ($ 18) per dose. Its Chinese manufacturers have not released complete reports on its effectiveness, and one study in Brazil said it has only a 50% efficiency.
“What results from these attacks are consequences that will affect every Ukrainian,” said Health Minister Maxim Stepanov. “We are talking about an attempt to disrupt the vaccination campaign in Ukraine.”
Ukraine received its first vaccine – 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca – at the end of February. Yet only about 23,500 people have been vaccinated.
In the same period, as many as 10,000 new infections were recorded per day. Overall, the country has 41 million 1.4 million infections and more than 28,000 deaths.
The health minister says that only about 40% of medical workers who treat coronavirus patients have agreed to receive the vaccine.
In parliament, Oleksandr Kornienko, a leading member of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s servant of the People’s faction, said medical facilities had to destroy many doses of the vaccine – which could be stored only a few hours after a vial was opened – because the medical staff prescribed vaccinations did not show up.
“Now they are being forced to destroy the coveted vaccine because they are not giving it to people in time,” Kornienko said.
Zelenskiy, who contracted the virus in November, tried to encourage vaccinations by giving himself a chance in public.
“The vaccine will allow us to live again without restrictions,” Zelensky said. “I believe that this vaccine is of high quality, it is one of the best in the world.”
Yet his actions seem to have had little effect.
The country has designated 14,000 doses of its first vaccine shipment for the military, especially those fought by Russia-backed separatists in the east. But only 1,030 troops have been vaccinated so far.
In the leading city Krasnohorivka, soldiers widely refused to vaccinate.
“I have little confidence in a pandemic, I do not think it is a kind of serious illness,” said Serhiy Kochuk, a 25-year-old soldier. ‘I’m healthy, but the vaccine can cause illness. As a result of this vaccine you may become ill. ”
The head of the Kyiv Sociology Institute, Volodymyr Paniotto, told The Associated Press that a recent decline in the popularity of Zelenskiy’s government has contributed to the vaccine resistance.
“The extremely critical attitude of Ukrainians towards the authorities has been placed on top of the struggle of politicians and the information war, which has led to great mistrust in society,” he said.
Ukrainians have been skeptical about any vaccinations since Soviet times. In 2019, the country had the largest outbreak of measles in Europe due to widespread refusal to get a chance at a measles vaccine.
“For the past twenty years, Ukraine has been one of the European countries most opposed to vaccination as such,” said Vadym Denysenko, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
The United Nations Development Program says the country has an ‘infodemic’ of misinformation about the vaccine and has called on the government to step up its fight.
“Conspiracy theories, rumors and malicious disinformation can quickly go viral on social media, especially if there is a low level of public trust in state institutions,” he said.
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Mstyslav Chernov in Selydove, Ukraine, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.
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