Themselves invented and themselves were scared: vaccine myths
New strains - new percentages
At the end of July, more than 35 million citizens in Russia received at least one component of the coronavirus vaccine. About 21 million people have already been fully vaccinated, most of them with Sputnik V. For a country with a population of 146 million, this is very little - not even 15%.
Surprisingly, this coincides with the proportion of those vaccinated worldwide. In this sense, Russia is in a global trend. Meanwhile, reality sets completely impossible tasks. Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Health speak about herd immunity in 80%. The Russians will have to make an almost fourfold jump by November, and this is a completely unrealistic date.
Despite a twofold increase in the rate of vaccination in the next month and a half, we can see a serious decrease in the increase in herd immunity. The thing is that now the most responsible, suggestible, reasonable and loyal are being instilled. Well, or just those who were forced by a business necessity.
Over time, the proportion of unvaccinated people who profess the mantra "show me the law, where it is written about compulsory vaccination" will grow. I personally had a conversation with an employee who agreed to Sputnik V only after the introduction of an emergency regime throughout the country. However, a week later he himself ran to the vaccination room. Succumbed to propaganda, common sense, or just scared?
At the same time, the proportion of people for whom the vaccine is contraindicated for medical reasons will also increase.
By autumn, the country will find itself in a difficult situation.
On the one hand, the rate of vaccination will drop, on the other hand, people will go to work en masse, which means they will be locked in rooms. To this we add the traditional surge of autumn respiratory diseases. And access to schools for children who perfectly tolerate the infection according to the scheme "from a school desk to a family dinner." The state will have to either significantly tighten restrictions on the unvaccinated, or introduce a partial lockdown.
A simultaneous scenario of these two options is likely. And this is far from purely Russian know-how. Countries that have reached the 50% vaccination threshold have seen a marked decline in vaccination rates.
For example, Germany with 49,88% vaccinated with two components on July 27. Statistics show that exactly a month ago, more than 333 thousand people were vaccinated per day, and on July 27 - only 101 thousand. This is a three-fold drop, which will only grow.
In the UK, with 55% vaccinated in the same period, a fourfold drop in the number of daily vaccinations. If the decline continues at the same pace, then Europe will have to take completely unpopular and undemocratic measures.
Myths that scare us
Hesitant citizens who voluntarily refuse vaccination explain their decision in different ways.
Some hope that the infection will bypass them, and they will wait out the viral tsunami in the notorious 20% of the unvaccinated. Largely because of such hesitant and determined opponents of the vaccine, we run the risk of joining together in 2022 on high alert. Of course, we got used to this notorious readiness for a year and a half, but there is absolutely no desire to live with it yet.
Sociologists, journalists, and doctors are politically correct in calling the vaccine misconceptions myths. Although this phenomenon can be safely called gossip, which has a much greater impact on the Russian population than common sense and scientifically grounded arguments.
According to the authoritative journal Nature Medicine, our country is the world leader in anti-vaccination sentiment. About 30% of Russians approve of the vaccine, the rest either believe in a global conspiracy, or do not believe in the effectiveness of the vaccine, or are afraid of contracting COVID-19 from the vaccine itself.
Here's how to reach the 80 percent herd immunity threshold with these statistics?
It can be hypothesized that in a country with such a high proportion of people with a university education there is a chance to reach out to common sense.
An entertaining selection of folk myth-making was prepared by Alena Makarova, a molecular biologist, graduate of Kazan State University, candidate of biological sciences, head of a group at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Let's try together with her to debunk the most common gossip that hinder us so much from living.
"Vaccination benefits primarily the pharmaceutical giants." A dangerous myth that collapses on the simplest mathematical calculations. It would be much more profitable for pharmaceutical companies to treat us for coronavirus, rather than vaccinate us. One dose of the Sputnik V vaccination costs 900 rubles, but a drug for the treatment of a deadly companion infected with a coronavirus, a cytokine storm, costs about 50 thousand rubles. Market laws dictate a completely different disposition: first of all, we treat with expensive drugs, but we will hold the vaccine for now. Humanity, fortunately, defeated the greed for profit. However, even without such immoral steps, the world pharmaceutical giants will earn hundreds of billions from vaccines.
Fertility and Oncology
"There is no trust in the domestic Sputnik V - they did it too quickly." Indeed, in our country, much is being done at an emergency pace, and the current epic with "voluntary" vaccination is a confirmation of this. But Russia is actually lucky with Sputnik V. After all, the Gamaleya Center has been working with the Ebola vaccine for many years, has managed to register it, research it and even test it in Africa. It was on the basis of this “old” biotechnological construction that the new Russian vaccine was created. It is scary to imagine what would have happened if our scientists did not have a baseline with a ready and tested Ebola vaccine.
"Cancer can be the result of vaccinations." This is out of the question, since the Sputnik V vaccine is based on a virus or, scientifically, a vector that causes a person to catch the common cold. That is why many, after vaccination, get sick for a couple of days with a high fever and a runny nose. The highlight of the vaccine is the load in the form of genetic information about the "thorn" of the coronavirus. For the last year and a half, probably everyone has already learned that the uniqueness of SARS-CoV-2 is in this notorious "thorn". Actually, the vaccine teaches our immune system the correct communication with such "thorns". Neither the “spike” itself, nor the vector (virus) that delivered it to the cell, is incorporated into human DNA and does not affect it. This means that they are not able to cause the transformation of cells into malignant tumors. After all, the world has been successfully working with such biotech vaccines for over 50 years and has proven to be harmless.
"After vaccination, there will be no children or they will be born unhealthy." First, at the moment there is not a single reliable study on the negative effect of Sputnik V vaccines on the ability to reproduce. Second, the myth is based on two misconceptions. One gifted blogger read the concept of "sterilizing immunity" and threw it out on the Internet with indignation. And off we go.
"Sterilizing immunity" means that a person who possesses it is not able to become infected at all. This, of course, is rare, but it happens, but it has nothing to do with reproductive function. More meticulous debunkers of the worldwide conspiracy have unearthed an article on the "contraceptive vaccine." This is generally a purely veterinary term describing a way to artificially limit the number of wild animals by tetanus toxin infection. As they say, they heard the ringing ...
And a couple of common myths / gossip.
"If I get a vaccine during an epidemic, I will dramatically increase the chances of getting infected." Of course, the first few days after vaccination, it is better to take care and not walk left and right without a mask. But exactly the same requirements are imposed on everyone now - this is the new reality. The vaccine does not work on an on-off basis and is not 100% guaranteed. Real immunity will develop in a few weeks after two vaccinations. Without vaccinations, a person in the midst of an epidemic has only one option for obtaining immunity - through natural infection. Only the chances of getting out of this state are different: someone will die guaranteed, someone will get a bunch of side diseases, and someone will really come out with a high titer of antibodies.
And, finally, one of the crown delusions.
"Sputnik V" is not the best vaccine, it is not for nothing that WHO has not yet approved it. " At the moment, 6 vaccines have been approved globally: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Sinovac and Sinopharm. Sputnik V developers are now preparing documents for registration at the WHO level. This is a long and difficult matter, and in Russia there is still no sufficient experience of working with such cases. Companies that kick open the doors to WHO naturally get approval first. Because these companies are Western, and because there is a lot of money circulating there.
Or do you want all your energies to be thrown into unnecessary WHO approval, rather than the deployment of large-scale vaccine production?
This is a matter of priorities. And in Russia they are chosen correctly. After all, Sputnik V has already been approved in 68 countries. And the completely European San Marino was generally saved from the pandemic only due to the Russian vaccine. For some reason, few people in our country remember this Western experience.
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