Covid, the ‘cases’ Romania and Bulgaria: Between vaccine flops and fake news

Out of control epidemiological curve and very low vaccination rates. Bulgaria and Romania have become two ‘cases’ in Europe due to the difficulties they are encountering in facing the fourth wave of Covid. This is highlighted in an article by Euractiv, starting from the dramatic situation in Bulgaria, where even today there was a record of cases and deaths and which is second in the sad EU ranking for deaths related to Covid in the last month and in the last place by population. immunized, with only 21%. According to experts, a strong responsibility for the situation is attributable to general practitioners, the reaction of the institutions and the vulnerability of the population to fake news. A significant number of GPs recommended not vaccinating people with chronic conditions, while the rest of Europe did the opposite. One of the most famous infectious diseases, Atanas Mangarov, has minimized the effects of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic and has spoken out against anti-Covid vaccines. This has created a climate of mistrust. “We have not been able to train most of the doctors who deal with vaccines. The time has been missed to conduct a targeted campaign in the summer of 2020”, commented epidemiologist Hristiana Batselova. “I’m surprised how many doctors in Bulgaria don’t understand how vaccines work. Doctors were afraid to get vaccinated and refused to vaccinate their patients,” she added. According to the Bulgarian Doctors’ Union, around 70% of doctors are vaccinated, one of the lowest levels in the EU. “The mistrust was then aggravated by fake news. It is time to stop blaming politicians. We cannot constantly blame the others for our wrong choices “, concluded the epidemiologist. According to some observers, the Bulgarian media give space to specialists who spread fake news, invoking pluralism and freedom of opinion. Some of these, for example, have advised against vaccination for pregnant women or those intending to become pregnant in the next six months.Also in Romania in recent weeks there has been a sharp increase in coronavirus infections, followed by a serious increase in deaths. . Last week, the country recorded one of the highest death rates worldwide and asked the EU for help to ease the pressure on its ailing health system. Doctors and politicians have blamed disinformation campaigns for the low spread of vaccines for Covid-19, but the reasons behind this situation are different, highlights Euractiv. Romanians have a long history of distrust in state authorities and the management of the vaccination campaign did nothing to fix it. An army doctor was tasked with leading the campaign and – while this move at first helped as the army is one of the most trusted institutions in Romania – the Ministry of Health was sidelined and communication was In addition, at the beginning of the summer, several members of the government declared the end of the pandemic and called the vaccination campaign a success. The country was the first in the EU to lift the restrictions, despite the slowness of the vaccination campaign. In fact, the government initially set a goal of vaccinating 10 million people by the end of September, and then introduced an interim target of five million people vaccinated by June 1, but in May, when these results were still a lot. far away, President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Florin Citu have begun to lift the restrictions. Citu then specified that his goal was not to vaccinate a certain number of people, but to overcome the pandemic. “The campaign was a success, we practically stopped the pandemic,” Iohannis said in June, justifying the low number. of doses administered daily with the reduced number of infections. But with the increase in infections in September and especially in October, queues at vaccination centers reappeared, there is talk of new restrictions and the possibility of making the green pass mandatory for some activities.