BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Vaccines from the West, Russia or China? Or none at all? That dilemma faces countries in Southeastern Europe, where coronavirus vaccination campaigns are slow to get underway – overshadowed by heated political debates and conspiracy theories.
In countries such as the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania and Bulgaria, vaccine skeptics include former presidents and even some doctors. Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic was among those who said he didn’t want to be forced to get vaccinated.
False beliefs that the coronavirus is a hoax or that vaccines would inject microchips into people have spread in countries previously under strict communist rule. Those who have ever undergone routine mass inoculations are deeply divided on whether or not to get the vaccines.
“There is a direct link between support for conspiracy theories and skepticism about vaccination,” warned a recent Balkan study. “A majority in the region does not intend to take the vaccine, a ratio significantly lower than elsewhere in Europe, where a majority prefer the vaccine.”
Only about 200,000 people applied for the vaccine in Serbia, a country of 7 million people, in the days after authorities opened proceedings. In contrast, 1 million Serbs signed up for 100 euros ($ 120) on the first day the government offered the pandemic relief.
Hoping to encourage vaccinations, Serbian officials have gotten their photos on TV. Yet they are themselves divided on whether to get the West-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or Russia’s Sputnik V, more divisions in a country formally seeking membership of the European Union, but where many prefer indicate closer ties with Moscow.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic greeted a shipment of 1 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on Saturday and said he will be given an injection to show it is safe.
“Serbs prefer the Russian vaccine,” read a recent headline from the Informer, a pro-government tabloid, when officials announced that 38% of those who applied for the shots are in favor of the Russian vaccine, while 31 % it wants Pfizer-BioNTech. version – a rough split between pro-Russians and pro-westerners in Serbia.
In neighboring Bosnia, a war-torn country that remains ethnically divided between Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats, politics also play a role, as the Serb-led half seemed to opt for the Russian vaccine, while the Bosnian Croat part is likely to turn over . to the western.
Sasa Milovanovic, a 57-year-old broker from Belgrade, sees all vaccines as part of the “global manipulation” of the pandemic.
“People are locked up, have no lives and live in a state of hysteria and fear,” he said.
Djokovic has said he was against being forced to take a coronavirus vaccine to travel and compete, but kept his mind open. The top tennis player and his wife tested positive in June after a series of exhibition matches with no social distance he organized in the Balkans. They and their foundation have donated 1 million euros ($ 1.1 million) to purchase ventilators and other medical equipment for hospitals in Serbia.
Mirsad Djerlek, Serbian Ministry of Health official, has described the vaccination response as’ satisfactory ‘but warned the state-run RTS broadcaster that’ people in rural areas usually believe in conspiracy theories, and 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 regional vaccination campaign started in December, concluded that nearly 80% of the citizens of the Western Balkan countries seeking to join the EU believe virus complete theories are being adopted. About half of them will refuse to be vaccinated, he said.
Unfounded theories claim that the virus is not real or that it is a bio-weapon created by the US or its opponents. Another popular lie is that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is using COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in the 7 billion people on Earth.
A low level of information about the virus and vaccines, mistrust in governments and repeated claims by authorities that their countries are under siege by foreigners help explain the high prevalence of such beliefs, according to the Balkan think tank.
Similar trends have even been observed in some countries of the Eastern European Union.
In Bulgaria, widespread conspiracy theories hampered previous attempts to tackle a measles outbreak. Surveys there suggested that mistrust of vaccines remains high even as coronavirus cases continue to rise. A recent poll by Gallup International found that 30% of respondents want to be vaccinated, 46% refuse and 24% are undecided.
Bulgarian doctors have tried to change attitudes. Dr. Stefan Konstantinov, a former health minister, joked that people should be told that neighboring countries would close Greece’s resorts to tourists who are not vaccinated because “this would guarantee that about 70% of the population would rush to get a shot. . “
In the Czech Republic, where surveys show that about 40% reject vaccination, protesters at a large rally against virus restrictions from the government in Prague demanded that vaccinations were not mandatory. Former President Vaclav Klaus, a fierce critic of the government’s pandemic response, told the crowd that vaccines are no solution.
“They say everything will be solved by a miracle vaccine,” said 79-year-old Klaus, who insists that people be exposed to the virus in order to gain immunity, which experts dismiss. “We have to say loud and clear that there is no such thing. … I will not be vaccinated. ”
Populist authorities in Hungary have taken a hard line against virus misinformation, but vaccine rejection is still estimated at around 30%. Parliament passed emergency powers in March that allow authorities to prosecute anyone deemed “the successful defense” against the virus, including “fear-spreading” or spreading false news. At least two people critical of the government’s response to the social media pandemic were arrested, but neither was formally charged.
Romanian Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said he relies on GPs to “inform, schedule and monitor people after the vaccine” and that his ministry will 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 the anti-vaxxers.”
Dr. Ivica Jeremic, who has been working with virus patients in Serbia since March and tested positive herself in November, hopes 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 a normal life,” he said.
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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.
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