Vaccine

A VOLUNTARY VACCINATION?

By Stephen Wilson

 

All the cafes around Aeroport in the  north west-district of Moscow have either vanished or at times seem empty or half empty. One popular cafe within the vicinity of Telman Square was closed down and once while on my way to a cheap restaurant called Mu Mu, I found it no longer existed. So I had no breakfast! When I went to the Aviation museum model shop one week ago I was informed by the shop assistant that not a single customer had dropped into their shop since last Monday. Then the following day his shop was flooded with an avalanche of customers. It goes to show you never know what to expect. The shop assistant was bemused by the erratic behavior of customers. He felt perplexed about how things can swiftly and suddenly change. And this is how many people feel about the Covid 19 crisis. Nobody knows what might happen next! The authorities and people seem unsure as to how to effectively respond to the crisis, when it may finish and in some cases, whether it is worth taking the proposed vaccination. A further question which defies a clear answer is:

"Is the vaccination against Covid 19 voluntary or obligatory?"  A public announcement by a Government representative that severe restrictions at school will continue until January 2022 has angered many teachers, parents as well as pupils. School pupils and teachers are already too stressed out. Such a public announcement does nothing to reassure people the situation is under control. It simply further demoralizes people strengthening an unbridgeable gap between the people and government. If the proposed vaccination is so effective then why is the government extending restrictions until 2022?    

 

In recent days we have heard much about the launch of a new vaccination Sputnik Five. In all the local newspapers you can read of people volunteering to take the vaccination. A local newspaper sent to my door, Evening Moscow (Vechernya Moskva), has a front page with a school history teacher receiving a vaccination from a doctor. The nurse is telling him, Ivan Vorobev, 'It is necessarily, Vanya, Necessary!' 

Teachers, doctors and nurses are expected to be the first 'volunteers' to accept the vaccine. But conflicting reports concerning this vaccination are far from reassuring. One statement by Anna Popova claimed, 'People receiving the vaccine must abstain from alcohol for 42 days' only to be contradicted by another official who said, 'A glass of champagne never did any harm to anyone". The public were at a loss. Can you drink alcohol or can't  you? From the medical sources I have, Popova seems correct. When some Russians took a vaccine and failed to observe a strict diet or drink alcohol the vaccine proved ineffective. However, perhaps some officials were afraid that Popova's official statement might deter people from taking the vaccination in the first place. New Years holidays without alcohol sounds abhorrent to some people.

 

Second City Teachers asked teachers how they felt about being vaccinated. For example, on a previous occasion a teacher, Oksana Chebotareva, had been ordered to take a vaccination against flu. Although she undertook this vaccination, she said, "I don't trust vaccinations in general. I think they destroy your immunity system." Olga Stefanova, a teacher and coach, stated, "I'm prepared to take this vaccination, but would much prefer to take one developed in England". Many teachers, like Russian doctors, stated they were happy to take a vaccination if it was properly tested rather than prematurely introduced. 

Vsevolody Lukhovitski, a spokesperson  for the Union 'Teacher,' stated that many teachers 'consider in principle that a vaccine is a good idea but they don't trust the concrete vaccine which was developed in Russia and they don't believe it had undergone all the necessarily tests and checks. As far as this opinion is rational or irrational, I can't judge. It is possibly based on a stereotype that everything done in Russia must be poor quality ... Without doubt, most teachers consider that in general, the vaccination is good, but it would be better if it was German or French. And there is a number of teachers who are in principle against vaccinations. They think they are dangerous.'  Vsevolody emphasizes how many Russians simply don't trust anyone in authority and when the government claims the vaccination is voluntary it should not be taken literary. 

Although legally the authorities can't strictly force teachers to take this vaccination, officials can try and exert tremendous pressure. Vsevolody states, "By the way, the vaccination against the flu was compulsory, but those teachers who did not want to take the vaccination, and did not fall ill, had almost no disciplinary measures taken against them'. Vsevolody claims that the authorities can not control everything. For example, although the Moscow authorities attempted to persuade all school teachers to work on line via Microsoft teams, they could not legally publish a declaration demanding they only work this way because such a move would be illegal. Nevertheless, they would try and use more subtle ways such as using academic coordinators to provide much needed technical aid which just involved Microsoft teams. Teachers felt they were cornered and had little choice but to agree.

 

One of the main problems which the authorities face when persuading people to take the vaccination is: What if very few people turn up to take the free vaccination? In the past, whole vaccines which had been developed to combat flu had to be discarded because not enough people sought to use it. Second City Teachers even interviewed nurses in Moscow clinics who oversaw such measures. Hence the massive publicity campaign all over Moscow promoting the need to take the vaccination against Covid 19. Billboards, newspapers and news reports constantly bombard you with appeals. The level of distrust and anxiety about taking this vaccination should not be underestimated. One thing is certain. Officials have a hard job ahead of them!