Vaccine Hesitancy = Burgeoning Case Load

"This wave is far worse than the others -- it is like a war."

"The only real reason anyone is here is because they did not get vaccinated."

"Fear is the only thing that got the attention of the general population."

Dr.Anca Streinu-Cercel, Bucharest Hospital

 

"Fake news has a  huge influence on our population, and in Eastern Europe in general."

"[Under leaders like Nicolae Ceausescu] nobody trusted their neighbours, nobody trusted the authorities, nobody trusted anybody."

Colonel Valeriu Ghorghita, coordinator, Romania's vaccination drive

A Romanian woman, who recovered after being in severe condition, is helped by a nurse to prepare for moving in a normal section form the intensive care unit saloon, at the Covid-19 section of National Institute of Pneumology 'Marius Nasta', in Bucharest, Romania, 15 October 2021. [EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT]

Romania recently reported one of the highest per capita death rates from COVID-19, in the world. Making physicians like Dr.Streinu-Cercel sigh in weary exasperation in the knowledge that it could all have been avoided, with a strong uptake of vaccine from among the general population. Instead, hospital entries for COVID are burgeoning, and so is the death toll. 

In Romania, as has proven current elsewhere in the world, it is mostly the rural population that deigns not to be inoculated against the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine causing COVID-19. They are named as the crux of the pandemic's surge and are considered to be vaccine-hesitant. Just as a new wave of the coronavirus began suffocating Eastern Europe, word came down from On High to evade vaccination.

On the authority of the powers vested in him by the Orthodox Church, Bishop Ambrose of Giurgiu in the small Romanian town of Copaceni reassured his parishioners that there really is nothing to be concerned about over COVID. "Don't be fooled by what you see on TV -- don't be scared of     COVID", he soothed them, telling worshipers: "don't rush to get vaccinated".

This not the view of Patriarch Daniel in Bucharest, however. He instructs the faithful to sensibly listen to doctors. At the very time that local clerics denounce vaccines for the damning reason that they represent the work of the Devil. A message that is hugely influential in rural areas in particular which realize a vaccination rate half that of the cities.

In the capital Bucharest, there are signs with grisly photographs depicting seriously ill patients, representing a deliberate effort to shock people to face the reality of the situation. As a result of 'vaccine hesitancy', Romania  distinguishes itself with the second-lowest vaccination rate in Europe; roughly 44 percent of adults with at least one dose, behind only Bulgaria. The European Union's overall vaccination rate is a sturdy 81 percent. 

 

Colonel Ghorghita who leads his country's vaccination drive, does so in the hope that the army's influence in the matter would help the authorities succeed in increasing vaccination numbers to a safer overall level, because of all state institutions, the military in the country has the greatest respect. And following that institution is that of the Orthodox Church, so whatever the army advocates seems to be undone by the lower echelons of church authority.

People in the country are suspicious. "Everyone is suddenly an expert, and fake news is everywhere, 24 hours a day", explained Silvia Nica, head emergency doctor at Bucharest University Hospital. In the current crisis the hospital has erected a treatment tent and turned the hospital lobby into a COVID ward.

Bucharest communications professor Alina Bargaoanu notes that people spreading wild theories on social media initiated COVID disinformation, to eventually create a more widespread movement. Diana Sosoaca, an elected member of the country's upper house of Parliament denounces the pandemic is "the biggest lie of the century". She suspects a Russian hand in spreading alarm over vaccines.

And then turns her attention toward the United States where many conspiracy theories originate, which acts as a validating factor for the anti-vaccination movement happy to discredit Russia, and happier yet to trust anything coming out of the United States, because as Ms.Bargaoanu stated: "Romania is a very pro-American country".

"There was no [government] communication strategy whatsoever, and no education strategy. The only people communicating, and very effectively, are the anti-vaxxers and the negationist movements." 

"The truth is that this pandemic wave was left to peak completely unmitigated — and the whole burden was put on the hospitals."

Octavian Jurma, doctor and health statistician

Medical personnel in protective suits push a Corona intensive care patient from the a Romanian Air Force C-27 plane into a Bundeswehr intensive care ambulance on the tarmac at Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (Gregor Fischer/dpa via AP)