Terwijl in Europa de hoge vaccinatiegraad echt groot coronaleed voorkomt, stapelen in Rusland de lijken van Covid-19 slachtoffers zich op. Reden: een extreem lage vaccinatiegraad. Slechts een derde van alle Russen heeft zich inmiddels laten vaccineren met het Russische Sputnik V-vaccin of één van de andere, eveneens in Rusland bedachte en geproduceerde vaccins. Het resultaat: overvolle ziekenhuizen, IC’s, mortuaria en begraafplaatsen.
Veel Russen zijn niet alleen gebrainwasht door de onophoudelijke stroom aan nepnieuws en desinformatie over Covid-19 en de Covid-vaccins via social media, maar koesteren van oudsher een grondig wantrouwen tegen alles wat met de overheid heeft te maken. Dus al helemaal tegen door de overheid verstrekte vaccins.
De Covid-19-ramp in Rusland trekt inmiddels de aandacht van internationale media. Hieronder een bloemlezing van citaten uit diverse media over het Russische ongevaccineerde oronadrama:
AP:
“I’m begging all Russians: Please get vaccinated, because it’s really dreadful and dangerous,” said the resident of Nizhny Novgorod, the country’s fifth-largest city.
Shigalturina said her 83-year-old grandmother “died right away after catching it. She wasn’t vaccinated.”
At Nizhny Novgorod’s Infectious Hospital No. 23, where the seriously ill patients lie in wards with little space between their beds, Dr. Natalia Soloshenko is battered by the onslaught.
“I can tell you that out of every 50 admitted, only one or two of them are vaccinated,” the chief doctor told The Associated Press. “The whole ICU is full of highly critical patients; all of those patients are unvaccinated.”
“To be honest, we’re not even outraged anymore; we just feel sorry for these people,” she said.
Nina Pugacheva is still in the hospital, but is one of the lucky ones — she is recovering.
“Tell everyone to get vaccinated,” she said.”
“Het gaat nog slechter dan eerdere coronagolven die we hier hebben gehad. Er zijn iedere dag duizend mensen die overlijden, volgens de officiële cijfers. Door naar oversterfte eerder tijdens de pandemie te kijken, weten we dat de daadwerkelijke cijfers drie keer zo hoog lagen als de officiële cijfers. We breken iedere dag nieuwe records.’
Meer dan de helft van de Russen is helemaal niet bang voor het virus, zo blijkt uit opiniepeilingen. Er zijn meer dan 600.000 Russen dood en meer dan de helft van de bevolking haalt zijn schouders op. Ik kom net uit de metro en daar is het ontzettend druk. Mensen staan dicht op elkaar, de meesten zonder mondkapje of maar half op. De cafés zitten vol.
Artsen zien het met lede ogen: minder dan eenderde van de bevolking is gevaccineerd, terwijl de ziekenhuizen nog steeds in een crisissituatie zitten.”
AD:
“Volgens epidemioloog Vasili Vlasov van de Hogeschool voor de economie in Moskou is het allemaal rijkelijk laat en hebben de autoriteiten de uit de hand lopende corona-situatie grotendeels aan zichzelf te wijten. ,,Ze hebben in de zomer van 2020 en 2021 de overwinning op de pandemie uitgeroepen. Daardoor werden mensen onverschillig over corona.”
Het gevolg: ze dragen bijna geen maskers meer en zijn zeer weifelachtig met het zich laten vaccineren. Vlasov schat dat niet meer dan 40 procent van de Russen is ingeënt, terwijl andere bronnen van nog geen 30 procent spreken.
“Deze autoriteiten staan alleen hun eigen Spoetnik V toe en geven je geen keus voor een westers vaccin. Dat maakt me razend, alleen daarom wil ik al niet gevaccineerd worden”, zegt Maria (50) uit Sint-Petersburg.
Aleksandr (29) uit Moskou wil zich om een heel andere reden niet laten vaccineren: ,,De overheid overdrijft de cijfers en wil ons alleen maar enten om ons te kunnen registreren en in de gaten te houden”, stelt hij.
Vlasov begrijpt de scepsis wel: ,,Spoetnik V en de andere twee Russische vaccins (EpiVacCorona en CoviVac, red.) zijn niet of nauwelijks getest. De inzet van Spoetnik V is puur politiek: de macht wil laten zien dat Rusland onafhankelijk is en eventueel falen niet toegeven.”
“At a press conference, President Vladimir Putin criticized his own friends for not getting vaccinated. “I look at my close ones and friends and see a strange response to the vaccination. They promised to get vaccinated after me but they did not,” Putin said in his Wednesday address to the country, in which only 32 percent of the population is vaccinated. The president also offered up a warning to “colleagues” across the country: “Under no circumstances should you fudge with the data in an effort to make the real picture look more beautiful,” Putin said. “That is dangerous and irresponsible in today’s situation.”
Authorities are so desperate that they’re asking retired doctors and medical students for help in treating patients. Still, an overwhelming number of infections and loss of life continues to sweep Russia with no end in sight.
Patients in hospitals across the country are complaining of poor medical service and neglect, fueling fears from other ill citizens of getting treated at hospitals—lest they risk getting infected with COVID-19 themselves.
A 36-year-old orthodontist, Daria Khorovskaya, fell to her death after jumping out of the window of her COVID-19 ward on the ninth floor of the Yelizavetinskaya Hospital. Shortly before the tragedy, Khorovskaya’s parents, both accomplished doctors, had died of the virus. Khorovskaya had reportedly admitted with COVID-19 just two hours after her mother died. So far, there has not been any public response by the hospital.
Despite about a thousand Russians dying every day from COVID-19, the majority of citizens remain skeptical about vaccination, with some going so far as to claim that the jabs are part of some diabolical masterplan to kill off the population.
“Clearly, the world’s leaders have invented this virus to reduce the population down to the ‘golden billion,’” a 32-year-old Moscow cameraman, who requested to be identified only by his first name, Aleksey, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “Every time I ask a doctor about Sputnik V, they talk me out of getting vaccinated.”
“Such a situation could be avoided if more than 60% of the country’s population would get vaccinated against coronavirus within a short span. What’s more, regardless of vaccination status or having endured the illness, it would be necessary to comply with using masks in crowded places, social distancing and not neglect sanitary and hygienic recommendations.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, the situation with coronavirus in Russia is becoming increasingly challenging due to poor vaccination rates and noncompliance with restriction measures. According to her, over the past week alone, nationwide cases have increased by 15.5%, while in 35 regions it has surpassed the national average, and critical mortality rates and severe coronavirus cases are being seen in 17 regions of Russia.”
“Russia has developed herd immunity to COVID-19 at 45.7%, while almost 49.2 mln people have been fully vaccinated, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday.
“As of October 22, some 53,511,786 people received the first component of the jab, while as many as 49,161,150 citizens were fully inoculated. The level of herd immunity in Russia stands at 45.7%,” the crisis center noted.”
BBC:
“One of the key explanations for this record number of cases and deaths is a lack of trust in the Sputnik V and other Russian-made coronavirus vaccines amongst many in the Russian population.
This, in part, is the result of many years of scepticism of what the authorities say or do.
As a result, campaigns to persuade people to have the vaccine are only gradually having any impact.
The governor also sharply criticised those opposed to the vaccine who have taken to social media to spread anti-vaccine messages across the region.
“I’m calling on all anti-vaxxers who have unleashed merry hell on social media against vaccinations, look into the eyes of those who have lost loved ones,” he said. “Our Russian vaccine is absolutely safe.”
Doctors in Vologda are also shocked by the scale of anti-vaccination sentiment in the region, highlighting how those opposed to vaccination are putting elderly and vulnerable members of their families and relatives at risk.
But in her office in the city, a vaccine sceptic called Elena described why she was wary of the vaccine. She argued there was a lot of contradictory information coming from many sources including the authorities in the region. People were afraid of the unknown, she said.
“We don’t understand what this vaccine is,” she told the BBC. “If we had all the information, all the statistics and the results of the research, I think people would have been much more loyal, but we have not seen all this.”
Lees ook: Kinderrechtenexperts: kinderen vaccineren is in strijd met Kinderrechtenverdrag
Lees ook: Het ongevaccineerde Godswonder Urk, waar ze maar geen Covid19 willen krijgen
Lees ook: ‘90% Covidpatiënten ongevaccineerd, bij overige 10% sprake van medische oorzaak’
