BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Vaccines from the West, Russia or China? Or not at all? The dilemma is facing countries in south-eastern Europe, where vaccinations for coronavirus are slowly beginning – 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 among those who said he did not want to be forced to be vaccinated.
False beliefs that the coronavirus is a hoax or that vaccines will inject microchips into people have spread in the countries that were previously under the harsh Communist government. Those who have undergone regular mass vaccinations once are deeply divided over whether to get the vaccines at all.
“There is a direct link between support for conspiracy theories and skepticism about vaccination,” a recent Balkan study warned. “A majority in the whole region do not intend to take the vaccine, a ratio that is significantly lower than elsewhere in Europe, where the majority prefer the vaccine.”
Only about 200,000 people in Serbia, a country of 7 million, applied for the vaccine in the days after the authorities began the procedure. By contrast, 1 million Serbs reported 100 euros ($ 120) on the first day the government offered pandemic assistance.
Hoping to encourage vaccinations, Serbian officials got their shots on TV. Yet they themselves are divided over whether to get the West-manufactured Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the Russian Sputnik V, more divisions in a country that is formally a member of the European Union, but where much closer ties with Moscow are preferred. .
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday welcomed a shipment of 1 million doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm and said he would get a chance to show it was safe.
‘Serbs prefer Russian vaccine’, reads a recent headline from the Informer, a government tabloid, while officials announced that 38% of those who applied to take the shots preferred the Russian vaccine, while 31 % want the Pfizer-BioNTech. version – a rough division among pro-Russians and pro-Westerners in Serbia.
In neighboring Bosnia, a war-torn country that remains ethnically divided among Serbs, Bosnians and Croats, politics is also a factor, as the Serbian half apparently wants to choose the Russian vaccine, while the Bosnian-Croatian part is likely to turn to the Western.
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, they have no more lives and live in a state of hysteria and fear,” he said.
Djokovic said he was not forced to take a coronavirus vaccine to travel and compete, but he kept his mind open. The top-ranked tennis player and his wife tested positive in June after a series of exhibition matches with no social distance he arranged in the Balkans. They and their foundation donated 1 million euros ($ 1.1 million) to buy fans and other medical equipment for hospitals in Serbia.
The Serbian Ministry of Health official Mirsad Djerlek described the vaccine response as’ satisfactory ‘, but warned the state-run RTS broadcaster that’ people in rural areas usually believe in conspiracy theories, so we need to talk to them and explain that the vaccine is the only way out in this situation. ”
A study by the Balkans’ policy advisory group in Europe, published before the local vaccination campaign began in December, concluded that the conspiracy theories for viruses are believed by almost 80% of the citizens of the countries in the Western Balkans who strives to join the EU. About half of them will refuse to be vaccinated.
Baseless theories claim that the virus is not real, or that it is a bio-weapon created by the US or its opponents. Another untruth is that Microsoft founder Bill Gates uses COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in the planet’s 7 billion people.
A low level of information about the virus and vaccines, mistrust in governments and repeated allegations by authorities that their countries are being besieged by foreigners help the Balkans brainstorm, according to the Balkans.
Similar trends have even been seen in some countries in the Eastern European Union.
In Bulgaria, widespread conspiracy theories have hampered past attempts to deal with a measles outbreak. Surveys have suggested that mistrust of vaccines remains high, although cases of coronavirus continue to increase. A recent Gallup International poll found that 30% of respondents want to be vaccinated, 46% will refuse and 24% are undecided.
Bulgarian doctors tried to change attitudes. Dr Stefan Konstantinov, a former health minister, joked that people should announce that neighboring Greece will close resorts for tourists who are not vaccinated, as “this will guarantee that about 70% of the population will rush for a sting to get.”
In the Czech Republic, where polls show that about 40% reject the vaccination, protesters demanded during a large rally against the government’s virus restrictions in Prague that vaccinations should not be compulsory. Former President Vaclav Klaus, a fierce critic of the government’s pandemic response, told the crowd that vaccines were not a solution.
“They say that everything will be solved by a miracle vaccine,” said the 79-year-old Klaus, who insists that people should be exposed to the virus to get immunity, which experts reject. “We have to say loud and clear that there is nothing. … I’m not going to be vaccinated. ‘
Populist authorities in Hungary have taken a hard line against misinformation about viruses, but the rejection of vaccines is still predicted at around 30%. Parliament adopted emergency powers in March that allow authorities to prosecute anyone deemed a successful defense against the virus, including ‘intimidating’ or spreading false news. At least two people who have criticized the government’s response to the pandemic on social media have been arrested, but none of them have been formally charged.
Romanian Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said he relied on GPs to inform, schedule and monitor people after the vaccination and that his ministry would offer bonuses to medical workers based on the number of people they get on board . Asked if such incentives would fuel anti-vaccination propaganda, Voiculescu said: “I am more interested in the doctors’ views on the matter than I am against the anti-vaxxers.”
Dr Ivica Jeremic, who has been working with virus patients in Serbia since March and tested positive herself in November, hopes that vaccination programs will speed up once people overcome their fear of the unknown.
“People will realize that the vaccine is the only way to return to normal life,” he said.
___
Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic; Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary; and Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.
—-
Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemie
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus- vaccination
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak