Least vaccinated nation in EU faces deadly surge
VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria – Standing outside the rundown public hospital in Bulgaria’s northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, the vaccination unit’s chief nurse voices a sad reality about her fellow citizens: “They don’t believe in vaccines.”
Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the 27-nation European Union and is facing a new, rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. Despite that, people in this Balkan nation are the most hesitant in the bloc to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Only 20% of adults in Bulgaria, which has a population of 7 million, have so far been fully vaccinated. That puts it last in the EU, which has an average of 69 % fully vaccinated.
“We are open every day,” said Yordanka Minekova, the chief vaccination nurse who has worked at the hospital for 35 years. “But people who want to be vaccinated are very few.”
Krasimira Nikolova, a 52-year-old restaurant worker, has chosen not to get vaccinated, saying she has doubts over the vaccines’ effectiveness, even though the shots have been shown to be highly effective in preventing serious illness and deaths.
“I don’t believe vaccines work,” she said. “I already had the virus. I don’t believe it’s so dangerous.”
But Sibila Marinova, manager of Veliko Tarnovo’s intensive care unit, says the full COVID-19 ICU ward in her hospital shows that’s simply not true.
“One hundred percent of the ICU patients are unvaccinated,” she said, adding that staff shortages are only piling on more pressure.
And she said she’s angry that so many Bulgarians are refusing to get jabbed.
Bulgaria has access to all four of the vaccines approved by the EU: Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson. But since the start of the pandemic, more than 19,000 people in Bulgaria have died of COVID-19, the EU’S third-highest death rate, behind only
the Czech Republic and Hungary. In the last week, an average of 41 people have died each day.
In response, the government imposed tighter restrictions Tuesday. Restaurants and cafes must close at 11 p.m. and their tables are limited to six people.
Nightclubs have been shuttered and cinemas and theaters are limited to half capacity. Outdoors sports arenas are limited to 30% capacity.
“The low vaccination rate forces us to impose these measures,” Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov said.
Despite being in a vulnerable age group, 71-year-old retiree Zhelyazko Marinov doesn’t want to get vaccinated.
“I think I’m healthy enough and have a good natural immunity,” he said, adding that he could be persuaded to get vaccinated if he couldn’t travel without a vaccine certificate.
Mariya Sharkova, a public health law specialist, believes that Bulgaria’s worryingly low vaccine uptake is the result of residents’ low trust in official institutions, along with fake news about the shots, political instability and a weak national vaccination campaign.
“In Bulgaria, we don’t have good health literacy,” she said. “Many people choose to believe conspiracy theories and fake news.”