Only 35% of the Russians are vaccinated, while the country is one of the most bereaved in the world by the epidemic. The very rooted mistrust of the population to power explains this reluctance.
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To attempt to pierce the great Russian mystery, that of a peak country in the conception of Vaccines against CVIV-19 but whose population stubbornly refuses vaccination, the place is well worth another. Street Gamaleïa, calm and tremendous, in the northwestern Moscow megalopolis, has only one peculiarity: it houses the Institute of the same name, national pride and developer of the starvoted vaccine of Russia, the Sputnik V .
It’s not the neighborhood that convinced Diana Stroukova, insurance agent, to be vaccinated but … his relationship with the neighborhood morgue. “I understand the fear of people and their lack of confidence in the state, but when we see the situation, there should be no doubts”, notes this 48-year-old woman who walks his dogs at the foot of the long fence Behind which the many buildings of the Gamaleïa Institute are abridged.
The “situation” is a mortality due to Covid-19 which reaches peaks in Russia – 1,200 deaths per day, an official statistic considered unreliable and minimalist. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the overmortality compared to the average of previous years exceeds 720,000 deaths, a demographic disaster that makes Russia one of the most bereaved countries in the world. The authorities themselves recognized on 12 November that 92% of this overmortality was attributable to the epidemic, which is equivalent to a major correction of official statistics.
More than lotteries or communication campaigns, this argument should wear. However, the Russian population remains one of the least vaccinated in Europe: November 11, 34.5% of the Russians had received two doses of one of the three national vaccines (Sputnik V, Epivaccorona and Covivac). Moscow does not leave, with figures comparable to this national average.
“The power is only lying”
The explanations of those who refuse immunization, at the foot of the buildings of Gamaleïa Street, resemble what can be heard elsewhere in the world. There is a question of contradictory information, the impossibility of unraveling the truth from the false.
Galina, 52, English teacher, was vaccinated; His 30-year-old daughter refuses, fearing adverse effects on fertility. Both have done research, without arriving at a decline. Her husband, he was forced to vaccinate himself by his company, under penalty of dismissal. “If you can still finish in the hospital, what’s good?”, “He asked.
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