"Why would I need a vaccine, if I'm going to die tomorrow?"
Violeta Colesnic
29 martie, 2021, 16:31
Vizualizări: 2069
On March 2nd, the Republic of Moldova launched the vaccination campaign against COVID19 and so far over 7 thousand healthcare workers have already been immunized, these are almost all front line workers in intensive care units and those with Covid profile.
The
big surprise was the medical staff from the Gagauzia Autonomy, who refused to
be given the vaccine, invoking that they are waiting for Sputnik-V produced by
the Russian Federation. Yesterday, however, 20 doctors and nurses from the
Hospital from Comrat inoculated the AstraZeneca serum.
Aggressive anti-vaccination propaganda started at the beginning of this pandemic and seems to have taken effect. We have reached the situation where 70% of the country's population declare that they do not want to be immunized, even if they become ill with Covid. People feel hesitant, they are afraid that instead of protecting them, the vaccine will infect them with the diabolical virus.
They are afraid of
side effects, so they wonder how harmless/effective the vaccines are,
especially since they were produced in a fairly short period of time compared
to other vaccines. There are many questions and being exhausted by the long
period of restrictions, poor crisis management by the authorities, job losses
and business bankruptcy, people become more vulnerable and begin to believe in
myths and falsehoods.
The question is how morally prepared are people to start being vaccinated and what information about vaccines has reached them? To better understand the state of things, we went to Drochia District, which has been under the Red Alert Code since yesterday due to the large number of people infected with Covid19.
When
we enter the village of Maramonovca in Drochia district, the church bells are
just starting to ring. The streets are full of mud, and water has gathered in
the potholes on the roads, forming puddles, which we must avoid, jumping over
the small ones and bypassing the big ones.
Not being used to these obstacles,
the photographer and I walk carefully, trying to keep away from the sticky mud
and step on the trotted path. We see a woman coming towards us with a hurried
step, so we stop between two puddles and wait for her to reach us. We only
manage to ask her what she thinks about the virus and vaccination, but she
walks past us without stopping, turning her head and speaking to us in Russian.
-
I don't believe there is a virus. That's all falsehood. Lies!
We
go up the hill towards the center of the village, following her and looking for
a yard to find someone to talk to. On the way we meet Alexei, who tells us that
we will have to talk to people in Russian, because it is a village with Russian
speakers and even the school in the village is teaching in Russian.
Alexei: I'm 88 years
old and I don't want to get vaccinated. I've heard that the vaccine is even more
dangerous than the virus itself.
"Liudmila Gheorghevna", as she introduces herself, is 68 years old and has worked as a teacher for her entire life. She is aware that the virus is dangerous and says she urges everyone to follow the rules to keep safe. She admits that her attitude towards the pandemic changed especially after people who were infected told her what they had went through. She wants to be vaccinated, but not with any type of vaccine.
-
I'm going to get vaccinated, but only with the
Russian vaccine, Sputnik V. I don't even want to hear about vaccines from
Europe. I don't want to listen a word about it! People are dying because of the
European vaccine. The Russian vaccine is effective. 35 countries have already
registered that vaccine. I don't need the American vaccine, because of which
everyone dies.
Meanwhile, the USA claimed that Russian intelligence agencies have mounted a campaign to undermine confidence in Pfizer and Moderna using online publications that have questioned the vaccines’ development and safety. “The outlets spread many types of disinformation, including about both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as international organizations, military conflicts, protests, and any divisive issue that they can exploit, in order to boost the sales of Sputnik V vaccine.” the spokeswoman said. A Kremlin spokesman denied the U.S. claim that Russia was spreading false information about vaccines.
We meet Alexei at the intersection of three roads, a little further down the church, right in the center of the village, he is younger than the first man. With his earbuds in, connected to a phone he holds in his hand, the man walks leisurely among the noisy geese running away from him.
His mask is pulled down around his chin and, while talking to us, he takes a long puff of smoke from an unfiltered cigarette, which he holds between his thumb and forefinger. He has a short mustache and a slightly flattened nose, broken by a blow.
Alexei is 37 years
old and he is trying to get used to his new life. Two months ago, when he was
released from the prison after serving his detention sentence, the world looked
different than when he was convicted. Being released after all the years behind
the bars, it was unusual for him to see people with masks on the street.
Alexei: I found out about COVID in prison. The guards came on duty in masks and when they talked to us they still wore masks. There were cases of infection at the penitentiary where I served my time, but the suspects were immediately transferred to Pruncul. Yes, I agree to get vaccinated. I'm not a doctor and I don't know which vaccine is better, but I'll listen to the doctors' opinions. I don't know what people in my village think about vaccination, but I think they would agree to get vaccinated. I can see on TV that people get sick and die, and I don't want to die. I want to live.
Alexei says he
follows the authorities' recommendations not only because he feels more
protected, but also because he fears to be fined.
Alexei: I don't have
money, I don't have a job, where can I get money to pay the fine? So that’s why
I respect the rules. I can see that the world has changed. People don't shake
hands anymore, they don't go out the gate in the street.
On a narrow ledge
with a shaky, almost rotten leg, two women with kerchiefs on their heads and
galoshes on their feet stop talking and watch us until we reach them. They
greet us in Russian and tells us that they have heard about the virus and the
vaccine, but they are not sure if they are going or not to get a vaccine.
-
Let's
wait and then we'll see if we get vaccinated or not. When the right time comes,
if everyone is going to be vaccinated, we will get a vaccine too. The people in
the village say that those in Europe do not need us, that they will put
something in our body and we will die. I do my cross and I pray that God keeps
us safe from the disease. What this disease is, the holy God knows. I've heard
it is all over the globe. Some people in the village said that their relatives
had COVID, but no, I don't believe that. They said those people died of covid,
but no, no way, because I know they were healthy people. Maybe they were sick,
maybe they had too much sugar in the blood (diabetes), maybe they had lung
disease, or maybe they “were cursed”.
Talking to people about viruses, pandemics or vaccines, I noticed the strong influence of religion on them, they were referring to God all the time. In a pandemic year, the support or backing of the Church would have been welcome, but the position of the clergy was largely hostile. Many priests came forward saying that the virus was "created" by globalists and Satanists, and through the vaccine people would be injected chips into their body to be tracked by satellites and antennas.
Both priests and
believers defied the recommendations and ignored the rules, secretly performing
the services and ignoring the recommendations to wear a mask in the holy
places. As several servants of the church became infected with the new
coronavirus and even died, the priests stopped making anti-covid or
anti-vaccine statements, going into a kind of shadow, only their influence was
already too big, believers being convinced that "the virus is fake"
and that "the vaccine is a chip."
The few parishioners from the church in Maramonovca pass in front of the icons, do the cross sign, kiss it and move on to the next. The piety with which they make this gesture shows that their love for God is much greater than the fear of the virus, which is not necessarily bad.
Someone even, out of too much respect for the place,
take off their shoes at the door, leaving their galoshes covered with mud
outside. I realize that we cannot intervene in the world of these people and we
leave the place in peace. Immediately, behind us, comes Maria, who tells us
that she is a cleaner in the church. I ask her why neither she nor those
present in the church wear a protective mask.
-
I have a
mask. In the pocket. I'm old and I'm suffocating with a mask. Indeed, some people
come without a mask, but those in the church have masks.
-
In the
pocket?
-
Yes…
-
"But
the parishioners kiss the icons!"
-
We wipe
the icons after each one.
-
But what
do you know about the vaccination campaign? Would you like to get vaccinated?
-
I do not
even know what to say. Why would I need a vaccine, if I'm going to die tomorrow
or the day after? I don't know if I would get vaccinated, but a lot of people
are against it. I would rather agree to get vaccinated with Sputnik, I don't
know the one in Europe and people are afraid that they might die because of it.
As we speak, people continue to come to church, passing us by, greeting each other and talking quietly. A woman with a raffia bag full of bread wipes the mud off her galoshes, bows to a crucifix, and then enters the church pulling the door behind her.
Raisa is retired, but
she works as an accountant for a individual enterprise.
-
Of course,
I want to get vaccinated. We cannot spread this disease forever. People are
afraid of anything, including the vaccine. It doesn't matter which country the
vaccine comes from, but I still prefer the Russian one.
On the road near the
pond we meet Raia, a 67-year-old woman, who marches to the store for bread. The
wind is almost blowing her down and we have to shout to hear each other. She
wears a hat under her thick scarf, and she wears another jacket under her
imitation leather jacket. The galoshes are a few sizes bigger, because she has several pairs of socks on her feet, in
which she has tucked the hems of her pants so that the cold doesn't get inside.
She takes out a worn, crumpled, dirty mask from one of her pockets and puts it
on her nose with her frozen hands.
- If someone explained to us anything about these vaccines, maybe we would know whether it is good or not to get vaccinated, but we don't know anything. Just what we hear on TV. Yes, I agree to get vaccinated, even though I'm retired. I want to live, because I'm only 67 years old. Why die of the virus, if we can live long and well by being vaccinated.
The same fear of vaccines we could sense in the village of Tarnova in Dondusheni district. None of those I spoke to would agree to get immunized.
Valentina:
No way! And I ask everyone, no one wants to be vaccinated, because we do not
know what is in these vaccines.
Sanatateinfo.md:
Why are people afraid of vaccines?
Valentina: Because they want to live, not to be introduced diseases into their bodies. We are hearing that people die from the vaccine. We are hearing that newborns are vaccinated and they die. People may die because their time has come, but doctors ascribe the death to COVID. That's all politics. I work at the sanatorium in the village and I can tell you that the doctors don't want to be vaccinated either. And if the doctors don't want to, it means we don't want to either. Here everything depends on the doctors, if they say that people have to get the vaccine, it means that the information must be taken seriously and people must get it, but if the doctors refuse ... I have got all the vaccines, I vaccinated my children, but I don't want to be vaccinated against COVID. Everything we hear about it scares us.
The people of Tarnova
don't really want to talk to us about viruses and vaccines. Some even turn
their backs on us and refuse to say anything. We stop next to a group of people
who, when we ask them about the vaccine, run away. There's only one man left
with us who doesn't want to say his name.
- We're against vaccination. It doesn’t matter, we will die either with or without it. You will live as long as it is fated by God. There are cases when people die after vaccination. The problem is that we are not informed accurately. I don't trust any vaccine. We have such governors, who have scared everyone with COVID and the vaccine. They say that the vaccine is for the benefit of people, but in fact, they want to destroy us. They want to kill the poor. The fewer people there are on earth, the more money they will have. Nobody gives me a job, because I'm 60 years old. They don't need me anymore, we are reckoned useless. God is to be feared, not the virus. Last year, when the pandemic started, I wanted to shake hands with a man and he refused and then said to me "Vasea, you want to die, but I don't". He died a month later. And the man was healthy. So, a man will live as long as he is fated to, despite being precautious.
Mariana
from Tsaul village, Dondusheni, says she knows nothing about the vaccination
campaign or vaccines. She is not even sure if she would like to be vaccinated,
but even if she makes her mind, then she will only accept the vaccine produced
by the Russians.
-
Because I
have Russian citizenship and I have more confidence in the Russian vaccine. My
daughter and granddaughter were vaccinated in Moscow and they are fine. People
are afraid of vaccines because they do not know enough information. Someone has
to explain. They should talk more about vaccination and the composition of
vaccines on TV. There is too much false information and it is difficult to know
which is true and which is not.
Even at the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities had a small and weak tentative to counter misinformation and blocked, for a short time, the websites that spread false rumour, but soon they gave up, and the fake information that appeared on dubious websites began to be distributed on social networks, and after that from one person to another. We can state that the authorities have also lost the fight against the anti-vaccine propaganda campaign and thus have fueled the fear in the population.
Victor tells us that
the virus exists, but it is not as terrible as the authorities try to convince
us and that it is just a simple flu that comes and go.
-
I definitely don't want to be vaccinated. If I
am offered the vaccine from the Russians, I will think carefully, but as for
the one from Europeans, Americans, English or another country, I don't need it.
Let Maia Sandu be vaccinated with them.
Sanatateinfo.md: Why
do you trust the Russian vaccine more?
-
Because
the Jews of Israel have all been vaccinated with Sputnik, with the Russian
vaccine, and the Jews are considered the smartest on earth.
People
are upset and often contradict each other. Although they get infected, they
carry on saying that the virus does not exist. Moreover, they tend to believe
any information without verifying it, and if they have heard anyone saying that
the Jews of Israel have been vaccinated with Sputnik, they believe it. A simple
check and they would find out that Jews are vaccinated with Pfizer.
In a year of pandemic, people have been struggling with dilemmas and a lot of questions. Some of the answers were so bizarre and so out of this world that they made me burst with laughter. And yet, even after a year of dismantling the lies by the campaigns carried out against false information, people still believe that the vaccine contains a tracking chip. The problem is not that people have been misinformed, but that they have not been informed enough and at the level of their comprehension.
Tag: Covid19, vaccine, propaganda, virus
Categoria: Știri Interne
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