Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 30 – “The numbers of Russian children being vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, viral hepatitis and pneumococcal infections in 2025 were the lowest in the last decade,” according to Rosstat data investigated by Aleksey Semyonov of the Takiye Dela portal; and that increases the risk of future epidemics of these diseases.
According to Russian government figures, the declines have been very small, the journalist says; but if one bases the declines on the total numbers of children not being vaccinated, then these falloffs have been much larger, not one percent or less but two or three times that figure (takiedela.ru/notes/detey-plokho-privivayut/).
The actual declines, Semyonov says, reflect the decision of parents who missed such shots during the covid epidemic not to get them, the unavailability of vaccines produced in the west and distrust among Russians for domestic ones, and the rise of anti-vaxxer sentiments not only among the population as a whole but among doctors in particular.
Anti-vaxxer sentiment is playing an especially harmful role. Approximately a third of all Russian doctors say they have colleagues who oppose giving vaccinations; and a VTsIOM poll found that 54 percent of Russian parents are prepared to have their children receive “only ‘the most necessary’” vaccines.
In general, they judge those to be about diseases that still circulate like measles rather than polio which is largely under control. As a result, explosive growth in measles is probably unlikely; but there is a real danger that diseases like polio could return and spread like wildfire through a population that could have been vaccinated but chose not to.
Medical experts with whom Semyonov spoke were unanimous in agreeing that declines in the number of young people being vaccinated represent a serious threat to the health of Russia in the future.
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