Maxim Shemetov, Polina Nickelskaya

ORYOL, Russia (Reuters – Roman Stebakov is an Ambulance Attendant who has seen COVID-19 face to face many times. But he prefers to take the chance with it than getting injected with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

“I will not get vaccinated until I’m sure, but they force me to be vaccinated.” It’s not safe, I don’t understand the purpose,” says Oryol’s paramedic. Oryol is 300 km (185 mi) south Moscow.

Alina is a young lady who clutches a stack of documents that certify her grandmother’s passing. Three weeks after her admission, the elderly woman died from COVID-19.

Alina, 26 years old, says her loss is not due to the vaccine. However, Alina claims she was too scared by some of the stories she heard.

“There are not enough tests and data.”

They are the reason why COVID-19 was approved by the United States and exported to over 70 countries. However, the country that first approved the vaccine is currently struggling to immunise its citizens. It has also seen record death rates for 21 consecutive days.

Reuters talked to doctors and officials about a variety of factors which have contributed to the spread of this disease. This has forced Russia to impose the tightest restrictions ever since the beginning of the pandemic.

In addition to vaccine hesitancy they also mentioned inconsistent policies and mixed messages from the authorities as well unreliable statistics. They even attempted to shift blame away from Moscow towards the heads of Russia’s republics.

A request to comment on this story by the Health Ministry was not answered immediately.

WAITING FOR AMBULANCES

Alexander Lyalyukhin, Oryol’s Botkin Hospital chief physician traced the source of the most severe COVID wave three weeks after September’s school year began. Some Russian regions then sent their students home to remote learning. Oryol was like many other schools, which kept their doors open.

Anaesthesists and specialists in infectious diseases are scarce at the hospital. COVID patients require oxygen support, and there is a shortage of these specialists.

The virus may be more severe. Lyalyukhin stated that sometimes we have less patients in winter but that they still consume more oxygen.

Dmitry Seregin, an ambulance paramedic said that patients often wait several hours for their ambulances to arrive.

The healthcare system is unable to withstand this influx. “This wave is twice as powerful in terms both of the severeness and number of cases,” he stated.

Vladimir Nikolayev (deputy head of regional health) told Reuters that there are still beds available and that patients needing oxygen were receiving it.

He stated, “Unfortunately,” that if we had performed active vaccination we wouldn’t be in such a situation.

The country’s entire population is affected by what Oryol is going through. According to the latest figures, the area ranked 40th among Russia’s 85 territories in terms of new cases. There were 326 new cases and five deaths over the last 24 hours.

Nearly 38% of Oryol’s residents had received their first injection as of last week, against 39.4% nationwide.

According to Seregin, low rates could be due to miscommunications about vaccine. The initial authorities stated that the vaccine would last for 2 years. However, they later informed people that it will need to be renewed after 6 months.

“Statements can be forged with contradictory information and this makes it difficult for people to trust the state.

Sources familiar with the COVID operation centre in one Russian region said that Russia had secured its position early in the outbreak of the pandemic, but lost momentum when it declared victory in June 2020. This referendum was on changes in constitutional law to enable President Vladimir Putin to continue his term.

We kind of drawn a line about the coronavirus and vaccinations. We now have an inordinate mountain of bodies,” the source stated.

UNRELIABLE DATA

The official figures for the pandemic’s death toll are not consistent.

The national coronavirus taskforce reported that cumulative deaths had reached 239,693, as of Monday. The figure is almost twice that of the 462,000 reported by the state statistics office. Reuters estimates that Russia’s cumulative deaths during the same time period were more than 632,000, compared to the annual average mortality rate for 2015-2019.

According to experts, people are complacent about reporting deaths that have not been reported.

Elena Shuraeva from the Oryol doctor’s union stated, “People believe it is point of me running from it if there’s no greater fear than the flu.”

Aleksei Timothyoshenko was her husband, and is a COVID surgeon. “And now people are afraid, they really see that many are getting sick and many are dying,” he said.

Putin is now faced with a problem. Although he has made repeated appeals to people for vaccinations, he stated last month that his friends also had not vaccinated.

Sources close to the Kremlin claim that there are evidence that recent restrictions, which included a shutdown of all workplaces nationwide this week, and an increasing requirement for individuals to prove their vaccination status in order to access certain venues, were leading to an increase on take-up. Andrei Klychkov (oryol governor) stated that vaccinations were happening three times faster than usual.

A Kremlin source said that compulsory vaccination would not be possible as it would have an effect on the government. It will be seen to be an attack against freedom. You know that this could seem like a powder keg.