BELGRADE: As Balkan governments scramble to secure coronavirus vaccines, another foe lurks: an anti-vaccination movement that has been gaining ground and is now trying to grab the spotlight.
With vaccine sceptics ranging from renegade doctors to politicians and Serb tennis champion Novak Djokovic, misinformation about the pandemic has been spreading across social media as fast as the virus itself.
“Of course Serbs will reject that evil deadly thing,” a Facebook user wrote about the new Covid-19 jab on the page of a prominent vaccine critic.
“Why do healthy people need a vaccine?” another asked.
Among Europe’s poorest nations, the Balkans will already struggle to purchase enough doses to cover their populations.
But countering widespread suspicions will be an additional challenge, as the Western Balkans have become a fertile breeding ground for the international anti-vax movement.
As North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski summed up: “We must not allow… semi-literate charlatans and quack doctors to dominate the biggest names and institutions in science, who have saved millions of lives since the first vaccines appeared.”
His concern is well-founded. In October, a regional survey found that more than half of those questioned in most countries did not plan to get vaccinated, according to the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG).
For comparison, an Ipsos poll from the same month found that more than 60 percent of people intended to in countries such as Spain, Germany and the US.
Though some may simply be wary of the record-fast development of the Covid-19 shots, the Balkans are also home to a “strikingly” high belief in coronavirus conspiracy theories, BiEPAG found.
For instance, half of the respondents believed the virus was engineered by the Chinese government in a lab, and that the pharmaceutical industry helped its spread.
Around a third believed there is some truth to theories of a link to 5G networks, US military development of bio-weapons, and Bill Gates’ intention to chip the world population.
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