KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – After receiving its first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine, Ukraine found itself in a new fight against the pandemic – persuading its people largely reluctant to get the vaccine.
Although infections are increasing dramatically, Ukrainians are increasingly turning against vaccination: an opinion poll released earlier this month by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology revealed that 60% of the country’s population does not want to be vaccinated, compared to 40 % a month earlier. The national survey of 1,207 had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
The resistance appears to be rooted in longstanding suspicions of vaccines dating back to the Soviet era, amplified by allegations by politicians about low-quality vaccines, corruption and misinformation scandals spread across social networks. Even more surprising, the reluctance still appears even among those most at risk who administer life-saving drugs to other people every day: medical workers.
In the mining town of Selydove, 700 kilometers (420 miles) east of Kiev, only 5% of the medical team agreed to be vaccinated. Among the declines is Olena Obyedko, a 26-year-old nurse who works in the hospital’s intensive care ward for patients with COVID-19, where people die every week.
“I decided not to get vaccinated. I doubt the quality of the vaccine. I’m afraid there are side effects, ”she said.
So few people chose to take the vaccines that the mobile brigade that came to Selydove to give them ended up getting vaccinated so as not to waste the vaccine.
“Such a low number of people vaccinated is associated with low confidence in the vaccine that entered Ukraine,” said brigade chief Olena Marchenko of the AstraZeneca vaccine that was made in India. “This is due to prejudice and the information that is spread on social networks. People read a lot, they have a negative attitude towards the Indian vaccine. “
Prominent politicians fueled this suspicion.
Former President Petro Poroshenko said in parliament this month that he asked doctors in a region why there was resistance to vaccination and was told: “Because they brought shit. And they brought it because of corruption and incompetence. “
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko increased discontent by demanding that parliament pass a law to give government compensation to those who face the side effects of the vaccine.
The vaccine corruption scandals started even before the first doses arrived in the country. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Office said it had started an investigation into a September deal to buy 1.9 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine at 504 hryvna ($ 18) per dose. Its Chinese manufacturers have not released full reports on its effectiveness and a study in Brazil said it is only 50% efficient.
“These attacks lead to consequences that will affect all Ukrainians,” said Health Minister Maxim Stepanov. “We are talking about an attempt to stop the vaccination campaign in Ukraine.”
Ukraine received its first shipment of vaccine – 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca – in late February. However, only about 23,500 people have been vaccinated since then.
In the same period, up to 10,000 new infections per day were recorded. Overall, the country of 41 million registered 1.4 million infections and more than 28,000 deaths.
The health minister says that only about 40% of medical workers who treat patients with coronavirus have agreed to receive the vaccine.
Speaking in parliament, Oleksandr Kornienko, one of the main members of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s People’s Servant faction, said medical facilities were forced to destroy many doses of the vaccine – which can only be stored for a few hours after the vial is opened – because the medical professionals who had received vaccines did not show up.
“Now they are forced to destroy the coveted vaccine, because they don’t give it to people in time,” said Kornienko.
Zelenskiy, who contracted the virus in November, tried to encourage vaccination by being publicly shot.
“The vaccine will allow us to live again without restrictions,” said Zelensky. “I believe that this vaccine is of high quality, it is one of the best in the world”.
However, his action seems to have had little effect.
The country has allocated 14,000 doses of its first vaccine shipment to the military, especially those fighting against Russian-backed separatists in the east. But only 1,030 soldiers have been vaccinated so far.
In the frontline town of Krasnohorivka, soldiers largely refused to vaccinate.
“I have little faith in a pandemic, I don’t think it’s some kind of serious illness,” said Serhiy Kochuk, a 25-year-old soldier. “I am healthy, but the vaccine can cause illness. Because of this vaccine, you can get sick. “
The head of the Kiev sociology institute, Volodymyr Paniotto, told the Associated Press that a recent decline in the popularity of the Zelenskiy government has contributed to resistance to the vaccine.
“Ukrainians’ overcritical attitude towards the authorities has been superimposed on the struggle of politicians and the information war, which has generated enormous distrust in society,” he said.
Ukrainians have been skeptical about any vaccinations since Soviet times. In 2019, the country had the biggest measles outbreak in Europe due to widespread refusals to get a measles vaccine.
“For the past 20 years, Ukraine has been among the European countries that are most opposed to vaccination as such,” said Vadym Denysenko, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
The United Nations Development Program says that the country is suffering from an “info-demication” of disinformation about the vaccine and asked the government to intensify its fight.
“Conspiracy theories, rumors and malicious misinformation can quickly go viral on social media, especially when there is a low level of public trust in state institutions,” the document said.
___
Mstyslav Chernov in Selydove, Ukraine, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story.
___
– Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak