COVID-19 cases in Russia have spiked in recent weeks, alarming the government as its vaccination program has faltered amid widespread skepticism.
The Kremlin repeatedly boasted that its handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been more efficient than Western countries, especially the United States, with state media claiming the virus had been all but defeated. The recent arrival of the delta variant of the virus, first found in India, is now jeopardizing that claim.
According to the New York Times, cases in Moscow alone have tripled over the past two weeks, prompting emergency action from the government. Most workers in the capital were ordered to take the week off, mass gatherings were temporarily banned, and playgrounds and athletic centers were temporarily closed. However, the city stopped just short of a lockdown, allowing dining areas to remain open until 11 p.m.
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Across the country, further measures are being taken to combat the spread, including forcing employers to require their employees receive the vaccine. There is even a limited attempt to introduce “vaccine passports” in some areas of the country.
Officials and analysts alike blame the same factors for the recent spike: “overwhelming nihilism” toward preventive measures, general skepticism among the Russian populace toward the healthcare system, and widespread skepticism toward vaccines.
The “delta” variant of COVID-19 was first seen in India in December and has alarmed public health officials worldwide over mutations that are 60% more contagious than the “alpha” variant.
President Joe Biden told reporters Friday he doesn’t believe the delta variant will lead to another national lockdown, but he still urged people across the country to continue getting vaccinated.
“I don’t think so because a lot of people have still been vaccinated, but the delta variant can kill people where people have not gotten vaccinated,” he answered in response to a question from the press pool. “The variant is unlikely to result into anything. The existing vaccines are very effective. No, it’s not a lockdown, but some areas will be very, very hurt.”
Despite fears the new variant could render current vaccines obsolete, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb assured people vaccines are still largely effective against the new strain.
“The mRNA vaccine [Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna] seems to be highly effective,” he said. “The viral vector vaccines from [Johnson & Johnson] and AstraZeneca also appear to be effective, about 60% effective. The mRNA vaccines are about 88% effective. So, we have the tools to control this and defeat it. We just need to use those tools.”
He further warned that the delta variant could wreak havoc in a largely unvaccinated area, something the urban centers of Russia are currently experiencing. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 90% of the 9,056 new COVID-19 cases in the past day were of the delta variant. According to the Moscow Times, Russian officials insisted the Sputnik V vaccine, the only vaccine available in Russia, is effective against the new variant.
Russia was the first country to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, but the vaccination program lags far behind its Western counterparts. While around 44% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated, the percentage in Russia is under 13%. The low vaccination rate is not due to lack of supply but rather a chronic mistrust of vaccines among the Russian public.
A head epidemiologist at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics University told British medical journal The Lancet, “Vaccine hesitancy is quite prevalent in Russia. There are anti-vaxxers here, and some journalists and influential people, even medical people, dance to the anti-vaxxers tune.”
The percentage of Americans certain they won’t get the vaccine is just 15%, with another 17% responding “probably not,” according to the Associated Press. The Levada Center, an independent Russian pollster, found in February that a full 62% of Russians do not intend to get the vaccine, increasing from 58% in December.
Many Russians in the medical establishment harbor skepticism as well. The Lancet reported the number of Russian doctors who don’t plan to get the vaccine is around 50%. One doctor told the journal he and many other medical figures believe in possibly sinister motives of “pharmaceutical companies, politicians, medical institutions, and the global media in promoting [COVID vaccine] use.”
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Russia has documented more than 5 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with more than 128,000 deaths. However, some analysts believe the real number may be higher, especially as Russia attempts to present itself as superior in handling crises to the West. The Rosstat statistics agency estimates that the true number of fatalities is over 270,000.
