Russia’s covid-19 vaccine is adopted abroad and snubbed at home

Behind skepticism are lingering doubts about the rapid development of Sputnik V and a mistrust rooted in the authorities, stemming from the country’s Soviet past. Research, for example, shows that many Russians believe that the coronavirus is a biological weapon made by man. At the same time, surveys indicate a strong current of disbelief for Covid-19 in Russia.

While coronavirus infections in Russia have been declining, the slow acceptance of the vaccine leaves the country vulnerable to a new outbreak. Russia had more than four million infections, the fourth largest in the world. Vaccination hesitation risks undermining the government’s goal of inoculating around 60% of the population by the summer.

“We were on an equal footing with everyone else in the development of the vaccine, but now we are behind schedule in administering it,” said Anton Gopka, dean of technology management and innovation faculty at St. Petersburg ITMO University and general partner of the company investment in health ATEM Capital. “In the end, the big risk is to prolong the pandemic here.”

This is not a concern for Vadim Ivanov, a 55-year-old driver from the St. Petersburg city maintenance department. He does not trust the government or the health care system and believes that the Covid-19 threat is exaggerated.

“I’m not getting a vaccine because I don’t believe in the coronavirus; it’s all about deception, ”said Ivanov, who usually doesn’t wear a mask and rarely practices social detachment. “People say it is all nonsense, everything elaborated, everything invented.”

To speed up the launch, Russian authorities have ruled out priority vaccination groups and opened the vaccination campaign for everyone in January. Vaccination centers have been set up in food courts, operas and shopping malls, with some outlets offering free ice cream for each serving.

“There is no shortage of vaccines,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters recently. “But you can’t say there is a hurry” to get a chance, he said. Officials expect demand for Sputnik V to increase as more Russians learn about the vaccine’s advantages. In addition to Sputnik V, Russia has approved two other Covid-19 vaccines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who regularly praises the vaccine on national television and extols it in his conversations with foreign leaders, has not yet been vaccinated. The Kremlin said Putin plans to get a vaccine during late summer or early fall, after consulting doctors.

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

The challenges of shooting across Russia’s vast expanse of land amid harsh winter conditions also hampered the campaign. On Thursday, Putin said nine of Russia’s 85 regions have not started vaccinating.

The Sputnik V shot faced challenges from the start. It was approved in August, just a few months after the start of development and before large-scale clinical trials were carried out. Then, when Russia started implementing it in December, production problems meant that the country could deliver only a fraction of the doses that the authorities had initially promised.

A peer-reviewed study, published last month in Lancet, a British medical journal, showed that the vaccine was 91.6% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and had no serious side effects. Meanwhile, Russian drug makers have recently increased production. In fact, some analysts expect an excess of vaccines if demand does not increase.

Abroad, Russia conducted a public relations campaign, including posting video updates in English and maintaining a Twitter account for Sputnik V. According to American officials, Russian intelligence agencies have set up a campaign to undermine confidence in Pfizer Inc.’s

and other Western vaccines, using online publications that in recent months have questioned vaccine development and safety. The Kremlin denies these charges.

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

But many Russians are not convinced.

A survey released by independent researcher Levada Center this week showed that only 30% of Russians are willing to get an injection of Sputnik V, up from 38% in December, with many citing concerns about possible side effects and questions about clinical trials.

“The vaccine has not yet been fully tested and [the mass vaccination campaign] it is actually a mass trial against Russian residents without their knowledge, ”said Tatyana Andreyeva, a 39-year-old director of human resources in Kaliningrad. She said she will not be vaccinated.

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

Globally, Russians are among the biggest skeptics about vaccines. An Ipsos survey released in February showed that 42% of Russians would receive a vaccine, compared with 71% in the United States and 57% in France.

In addition to doubts about Sputnik V himself, analysts cite a widespread lack of confidence in the authorities and the health system.

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

After the end of the Soviet Union, funding for the healthcare system collapsed, many highly qualified medical professionals emigrated, and medical research declined. In 2010, the government launched an ambitious plan to improve the quality of health in Russia and modernize medical facilities. But in 2019, the number of available hospitals and beds declined, and officials said the quality of services had dramatically worsened.

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

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

The Levada survey found that two-thirds of respondents believe that the coronavirus is a biological weapon made by man. 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 standard of confidence in all types of official authorities, other political institutions and in the health care system,” said Zavadskaya.

Ms. Andreyeva, in Kaliningrad, said that she tries to avoid relying on Russian health 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]