Authorities in parts of Russia are now mandating vaccination in the face of high
covid-19 infections and record deaths.
Just twenty five percent of adults are fully inoculated in the country with four
domestic vaccines available.
Russians aren't facing any shortages, but the government is struggling with widespread
skepticism and reluctance to take those available vaccines.
Special correspondent Julia Chapman reports from Western Siberia.
More Russians fear the vaccine than they do the virus, but Irina
Emiliana is not one of them.
A teacher in the Siberian city of Tomsk, she is allergic to lactose
and is careful about what she puts in her body.
So when it came to getting vaccinated against covid-19, Irina did her research.
She chose one of the country's four shots at BEBACK.
Korona reported to cause milder side effects than the alternatives.
But two weeks after her second dose, Irina caught coronavirus.
A week later, she was in a makeshift hospital, which filled up rapidly.
The main problem is that there are too many people, especially nowadays.
It's about 200. When we arrived, there were just so durables and everything
was OK. It was very difficult and I stopped sleeping,
as I usually do, so I could sleep just from midnight to three or four
a.m..
The government says only 2.5 percent of covid-19 infections are among
those already vaccinated, but stories like arenas are fueling
already widespread skepticism.
Russia was the first country to approve a covid-19 shot for mass use.
It is only using domestically produced vaccines.
Health officials say they are all safe and effective, but that judgment
came before any kind of full trial data.
Peer reviewed results have since validated the Sputnik vaccine, which is being
used most widely. But experts have cast doubt on the one Irina
received. EPI Corona is a peptide vaccine produced
by state run lab vector.
It uses synthetic viral proteins, which are meant to teach the immune system
to identify and neutralize the virus.
The vaccine was approved to market for people to use before second
or third phase work completed.
So and that practically means if you have leverage, if you have
a connection with government and whose approval?
Organization, you can get anything out of the market, so
and that's a huge room for corruption.
The Vector lab says antibodies can't be detected using normal tests,
but only with its own technology.
Some clinical trial volunteers attempted to verify their immunity.
Independent labs could find no neutralizing antibodies.
The story of epilog is unfortunate.
And again, I was openly criticizing a PAVUK.
Still, in the end of the day, if you don't want to take a walk, you can
get Sputnik. I guarantee you, even if you live in remote Siberian
towns where the dominant oxygenation was running, if
you walk and you don't want epilog, you go across the street and you get Sputnik.
But surveys suggest that 55 percent of Russians don't want a
vaccine at all. Most cite fear of side effects and the speed
at which they were produced.
Polls suggest that critics of the Putin government are also less likely to get
a shot. The low vaccination rate has left Russia exposed to
a third wave of infections outside of Moscow.
Pop up hospitals and conversion covid wards are reopening in
Tomsk. Hospital beds are filling up even as authorities open more dedicated
facilities like this one. The Delta variant is simply spreading faster
than the population can be convinced to get vaccinated.
So authorities have started making vaccination mandatory in a quarter
of Russian regions. Certain groups are now obligated to get immunized.
The rules vary, but mostly apply to those working in the state or service sectors.
President Vladimir Putin has at once distanced himself from the policy and
insisted that its legal representative tonight.
I once said that I do not support mandatory vaccination and I continue to adhere
to this point of view. However, the law says that in the event of an increase
in the number of cases and in the event of an epidemic, regional heads can introduce
mandatory vaccinations for certain groups of people, especially risk
groups, on their nickel in their covid vaccine.
Skeptics don't live in the shadows in Russia, but Marena, an accountant
who asked us not to use her real name, fears her job is at risk.
She is one of millions of Russians whose employer has ordered her to be vaccinated.
We don't know this vaccine. We don't know what it is.
I don't want to inject myself with something unknown and we don't trust our government.
But if we don't have a medical exemption to vaccination will be sent home without pay.
Some of Marina's colleagues have turned to the black market for their vaccine
certificate. She says she may do the same.
Authorities are cracking down on the practice, arresting those suspected of selling
them. But demand for fake certificates sits in stark contrast
to many countries where people are lining up to get vaccinated.
While vaccine mandates are controversial, they have doubled Russia's rate of inoculation.
Another to the press in Moscow.
People can get vaccinated at Pop-Up clinics and parks at their doctor's office.
So the mass vaccination will certainly lead to the development of collective immunity.
That target is still a long way off.
And in the meantime, people are dying.
In other countries, rising immunization rates have led to falling fatalities.
That hasn't been the case in Russia.
Although the official infection figures are still lower than in winter, daily
deaths from the virus are higher than ever.
Statistics show more than 400000 excess deaths since the start of the pandemic,
one of the worst per capita rates in the world.
The Kremlin has ruled out another unpopular lockdown ahead of parliamentary
elections in September. It's relying on vaccines to carry Russians
to the polls. Irina also wants her fellow citizens to get a shot.
Some people don't think that it's good to get the vaccine.
Some people think that it's a kind of politics.
People don't understand that now.
So our government and our scientists tried to help people to
protect themselves.
She's confident that vaccines are the only chance to keep future waves
of the virus at bay.
For the PBS NewsHour. I'm Julia Chapman in Tomsk.