The Russian vaccine Covid-19 is embraced abroad, clogged at home

Behind the skepticism are persistent doubts about the rapid development of Sputnik V and a deep-seated distrust of the authorities stemming from the country’s Soviet past. Polls, for example, show that many Russians believe the coronavirus is an artificial biological weapon. At the same time, polls indicate a strong current of Covid-19 disbelief in Russia.

While coronavirus infections in Russia have declined, slow acceptance of the vaccine makes the country vulnerable to a new wave. Russia has had more than four million infections, the fourth largest in the world. Hesitation on the vaccine risks undermining the government’s goal of inoculating about 60 percent of the population by summer.

“We were on an equal footing with everyone else in the development of the vaccine, but now we are lagging behind in its administration,” said Anton Gopka, dean of the Faculty of Technology Management and Innovation at ITMO University in St. Petersburg and general partner of the health investment firm ATEM. 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 driver for the St. Petersburg maintenance department. He does not trust the government or the health care system and believes that the Covid-19 threat is overburdened.

“I don’t get a vaccine because I don’t believe in coronavirus; it’s all about cheating, ”said Mr. Ivanov, who does not usually wear a mask and rarely practices social distancing. “People say everything is stupid, everything is extremely rich, everything is invented.”

To speed up the launch, the Russian authorities canceled the priority vaccination groups and opened the inoculation campaign for everyone in January. Vaccination centers have been set up in food courts, works and shopping malls, with some shops offering free ice cream for every shot.

“Vaccines are not missing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters recently. “But you can’t say there’s a rush” to get a shot, 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 more Covid-19 vaccines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who regularly praises the vaccine on national television and elevates it in his conversations with foreign leaders, has not yet been vaccinated himself. The Kremlin has said Mr Putin intends to be vaccinated in late summer or early autumn after consulting doctors.

“The government needs to do a better job of communicating the benefits of the vaccine,” Mr Gopka said. “And, of course, people would feel more comfortable if the head of state took it.”

Challenges to shoot Russia’s vast landmass amid harsh winter conditions also hampered the campaign. On Thursday, Putin said nine of Russia’s 85 regions had not started vaccination.

Sputnik V shot from the start. It was approved in August, just months after development began and before large-scale clinical trials were conducted. Then, as Russia began launching it in December, production problems meant that the country could only deliver a fraction of the doses that 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. Meanwhile, Russian drug manufacturers have intensified production. Indeed, some analysts expect an excess of vaccines if demand does not increase.

Abroad, Russia has launched a public relations campaign, including posting video updates in English and maintaining a Twitter account for Sputnik V. According to US officials, Russian intelligence agencies have launched a campaign to undermine confidence in Pfizer Inc.

and other Western vaccines, using online publications that have called into question the development and safety of vaccines in recent months. The Kremlin denies the allegations.

More than 40 other countries have authorized Sputnik V for emergency use. EU members Slovakia and Hungary approved Sputnik V and on Thursday, the bloc’s drug regulator began a formal assessment that could lead to the authorization of the shooting.

But many Russians remain unconvinced.

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

“The vaccine has not yet been fully tested [the mass vaccination campaign] it is, in fact, a mass trial against the people of Russia without their knowledge, ”said Tatyana Andreyeva, a 39-year-old human resources director in Kaliningrad. She said she would not be inoculated.

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

Globally, Russians are among the biggest skeptics of the vaccine. A plaster survey launched in February showed that 42% of Russians will receive a vaccine, compared to 71% in the US and 57% in France.

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

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

After the end of the Soviet Union, funding for the health system collapsed, many highly qualified medical professionals emigrated, and medical research slowed. In 2010, the government launched an ambitious plan to improve the quality of health care in Russia and modernize medical facilities. But by 2019, the number of available hospitals and beds has declined, and officials say the quality of services has suddenly deteriorated.

“No one has touched the infrastructure of the system since the late 1950s,” said Veronika Skvortsova, then health minister, in 2019.

Distrust of the government is a legacy of Russia’s communist past, when Russian suspicion of the authorities led many to rely on word of mouth and other informal sources of information, according to Margarita Zavadskaya, a political science researcher at the European University of St. Petersburg. Petersburg.

The Levada survey found that two-thirds of respondents believed that coronavirus was an artificial biological weapon. Among Russians who tend to rely on family and friends for information, nearly three-quarters believe it is a biological weapon.

“There is an extremely low trust pattern in all types of official authorities, other political institutions and the health system,” Ms Zavadskaya said.

Ms Andreyeva of Kaliningrad said she was trying to avoid relying on Russian healthcare in general.

“There is no help there, with rare exceptions,” she said. “The principle is – help yourself.”

—Valentina Ochirova contributed to this article.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at [email protected]