The fourth corona wave is taking on dramatic proportions in Romania. But although the hospitals are at their limit and the death rate is higher than ever before, there is persistent skepticism about vaccinations. The Church also plays its part in this.
“Don’t be fooled by what you see on TV – don’t be afraid of Corona.” These words do not come from a Telegram group of Attila Hildmann, but from one of the most important spokesmen of the Catholic Orthodox Church in Romania. In mid-October, when the fourth wave was already looming in the Eastern European country, the arch-conservative Bishop Ambrose von Giurgiu preached: “Take your time with the vaccination.”
The words of the bishop fall on fertile ground, especially among the devout rural population. Words that can not only be criminally relevant, but in the worst case also life-threatening.
Romania has – measured by its population – meanwhile highest corona death rate in the world and is ahead of the USA, India and Brazil. Last Tuesday, around 600 people died of or with Covid 19 disease within 24 hours, the highest value since the pandemic began. In relation to the population, the death rate is almost seven times as high as in the United States and almost 17 times as high as in Germany.
Doctor: “This wave is much worse than the others”
A month ago it became clear what catastrophe Romania was slipping into. The number of infections began to skyrocket at the beginning of October and it wasn’t long before the first hospitals sounded the alarm again. Leaked video recordings showed overcrowded patient rooms, ambulances queuing in front of the clinics, while corpses in black plastic bags are constantly being driven down the corridors. What makes the situation particularly difficult for doctors and nurses is the knowledge that this extent could have been avoided.
“This wave is much worse than the others – it’s like a war,” reports Bucharest doctor Dr. Anca Streinu-Cercel of “New York Times“We go to our wards, but we don’t know when we’ll get out.” And the only real reason someone is here is because they haven’t been vaccinated, says Streinu-Cercel. The official figures speak for it: More than 90 percent of the corona deaths are unvaccinated. Silvia Nica, senior emergency doctor at the university hospital in the capital, is similarly frustrated. “Everyone is suddenly an expert and fake news is everywhere, 24 hours a day,” she complains to the US newspaper never thought this virus would last that long. We’re all exhausted. “
Although Romania initially made good progress with vaccinations, the country is now in a European comparison in the penultimate place. Only around 44 percent of adults have received at least one dose, only Bulgaria is worse off with 29 percent. For comparison: the average vaccination rate in the EU is 81 percent, several countries – such as Portugal and Spain – have already cracked the 90 percent.
Deep mistrust anchored historically
But it is not only in Romania that persistent vaccine skepticism is keeping people from the injection, in Russia, Ukraine and Latvia the situation does not look much better. What connects the countries in Eastern Europe is their common communist past – and widespread disillusionment with the resulting political disorder and corruption.
“Misinformation has a major impact on our population and on Eastern Europe in general,” says Valeriu Ghorghita, officer in the Romanian army and head of the vaccination campaign. Under leaders such as Nicolae Ceausescu, the longtime dictator of Romania, who was overthrown and executed in 1989, “nobody trusted his neighbors, nobody trusted the authorities, nobody trusted anyone,” Colonel Ghorghita told the “NY Times“.
The consequences of this deep-rooted distrust are particularly noticeable in times of the pandemic. Many people are extremely suspicious of government vaccination recommendations and prefer to listen to self-proclaimed experts on the internet who advise otherwise. It is tragic, according to Ghorghita, that the most vulnerable group of the population – the elderly – are the hardest to convince. Only 25 percent of people over 80 are vaccinated.
Church continues to fuel vaccine skepticism – especially in rural areas
It doesn’t help that the Orthodox Church – which is considered to be the most trustworthy institution in Romania after the military – does not advocate vaccinations collectively and clearly. While the Patriarch in Bucharest calls on people to form their own opinions and to listen to the doctors, influential bishops such as Ambrose von Giurgi and many local clerics denounce vaccines as “the work of the devil”.
The influence of the church is particularly great in rural areas, which is also reflected in the vaccination rate. In contrast to large cities like Bucharest, where more than 80 percent of adults are at least first vaccinated, less than half of the syringes were distributed there. In Copaceni, a rural district south of the capital, hospital staff are appalled by Bishop Ambrose’s anti-vaccination campaign. “I fight every day to have people vaccinated and then he comes and tells them not to do it,” reports a senior doctor at the “NY Times“.
But it would be too easy to push the bogeyman to the church alone. Also prominent politicians further fuel the vaccination skepticism. One of them is right-wing MP Diana Șoșoacă, who called the pandemic the “biggest lie of the century”, held anti-mask demos and even blocked the opening of a vaccination center. Sosoaca has the greatest influence on the Internet, where she is followed by millions of people on her social media channels. This mixture of influential personalities from church and politics helps to explain why vaccination skepticism is so persistent in Romania and why it is reinforced by social media.
There are now huge posters with photos of seriously ill corona patients hanging in the city center of Bucharest. The pictures are intended to make the seriousness of the situation clear to people. One headline reads: “You are suffocating. You beg. You regret.”
Sources: “NY Times“,”mirrors“(€), Our World in Data, ECDC