To try to unravel the great Russian mystery, that of a country at the forefront in the design of vaccines against Covid-19 but whose population stubbornly refuses vaccination, the place is well worth another. The street Gamaleïa, calm and raised, in the north-west of the Moscow megalopolis, has only one particularity: it shelters the institute of the same name, national pride and developer of the star vaccine of Russia, the Sputnik V .
It was not this neighborhood that convinced Diana Stroukova, an insurance agent, to get vaccinated, but… her connections at the neighborhood morgue. “I understand the fear of people and their lack of confidence in the state, but when you see the situation, there should be no more doubts”, notes this 48-year-old woman who walks her dogs at the foot of the long fence behind which shelter the many buildings of the Gamaleïa Institute.
The “Situation”, it is mortality due to Covid-19 which is reaching new heights in Russia – 1,200 deaths per day, an official statistic considered unreliable and minimalist. Since the start of the epidemic, excess mortality compared to the average for previous years has exceeded 720,000 deaths, a demographic catastrophe that has made Russia one of the most bereaved countries in the world. The authorities themselves acknowledged on November 12 that 92% of this excess mortality was attributable to the epidemic, which amounts to a major correction in official statistics.
More than lotteries or communication campaigns, this argument should bear. However, the Russian population remains one of the least vaccinated in Europe: as of November 11, 34.5% of Russians had received two doses of one of the three national vaccines (Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona and CoviVac). Moscow is no different, with figures comparable to this national average.
“Power only lies”
The explanations of those who refuse vaccination, at the foot of the buildings on rue Gamaleïa, resemble what we can hear elsewhere in the world. It is a question of contradictory information, of the impossibility of disentangling the true from the false.
Galina, 52, an English teacher, was vaccinated; her 30-year-old daughter refuses, fearing adverse effects on fertility. The two did their research, without coming to a hard conclusion. Her husband was forced to be vaccinated by his company, on pain of dismissal. “If we can still end up in the hospital, what’s the point?” “, he asked.
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