IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i6p3387-d770338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Policy Measures to Increase Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Rate in Russia

Author

Listed:
  • Dmitry V. Boguslavsky

    (Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, 26 Vavilov Street, 119334 Moscow, Russia)

  • Natalia P. Sharova

    (Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, 26 Vavilov Street, 119334 Moscow, Russia)

  • Konstantin S. Sharov

    (Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, 26 Vavilov Street, 119334 Moscow, Russia)

Abstract

The total vaccination rate remains relatively low in Russia as of March 2022 (around 55%, with around 20% in some regions). In the paper, we study the reasons for it. We communicate the results of our survey aimed at detecting reasons for the relatively low anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rate in Russia (47.1% as of mid-January 2022) and suggest potential measures to increase the level of confidence in the Russian vaccination campaign. A total of 14,310 users exhibited interest to participate in the research (16.84% of the total number of invitations sent in the Russian social network VKontakte). After the sample set repair, only 5822 (40.68% of those who agreed to participate) responses were suitable for the research, and they composed the final set. The age range of the respondents was 16–51 years old (y.o.) with a mean of 29.1 ± 10.6 y.o. The proportion of the female gender in responses was 44.23%. A total of 2454 persons (42.15%) expressed their hesitant, cautious, or negative attitude towards vaccine uptake. Of the 2454 persons with cautious attitude towards vaccination, only 928 (37.82%) were concerned about the quality of the Russian vaccines. A total of 1323 individuals (53.91%) supported one or more conspiracy beliefs. A total of 5064 (86.98% of the whole set) showed cautious or negative attitude towards the planned introduction of a nationwide system of vaccination certification/verification based on QR codes. The main social factors that hinder the Russian vaccination campaign are: vexation over the lack of desire of officials to receive feedback from the general population regarding vaccination, wide support for conspiracy beliefs, and controversy over the QR code-based digital system. To elevate the vaccination rate in Russia, the following steps may be taken: social encouragement of those who support vaccination, increase in transparency of the vaccination campaign, acceptance of both digital and paper vaccination certificates, increase in participation of society in vaccination-related discussions, public disclosure of vaccine composition, and avoidance of excessive digitalization of data in the vaccination campaign.

Suggested Citation

  • Dmitry V. Boguslavsky & Natalia P. Sharova & Konstantin S. Sharov, 2022. "Public Policy Measures to Increase Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Rate in Russia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3387-:d:770338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3387/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3387/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shadi Shahsavari & Pavan Holur & Tianyi Wang & Timothy R. Tangherlini & Vwani Roychowdhury, 2020. "Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 279-317, November.
    2. Paul M. Garrett & YuWen Wang & Joshua P. White & Shulan Hsieh & Carol Strong & Yi-Chan Lee & Stephan Lewandowsky & Simon Dennis & Cheng-Ta Yang, 2021. "Young Adults View Smartphone Tracking Technologies for COVID-19 as Acceptable: The Case of Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Fu Gu & Yingwen Wu & Xinyu Hu & Jianfeng Guo & Xiaohan Yang & Xinze Zhao, 2021. "The Role of Conspiracy Theories in the Spread of COVID-19 across the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-14, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olga Khokhlova & Nishtha Lamba & Aditi Bhatia & Marina Vinogradova, 2021. "Biowarfare conspiracy, faith in government, and compliance with safety guidelines during COVID-19: an international study," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 20(2), pages 235-251, November.
    2. Laura Colautti & Alice Cancer & Sara Magenes & Alessandro Antonietti & Paola Iannello, 2022. "Risk-Perception Change Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine’s Side Effects: The Role of Individual Differences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Sara Monaci & Domenico Morreale & Simone Persico, 2023. "The Eurabia Conspiracy Theory: Twitter’s Political Influencers, Narratives, and Information Sources," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(4), pages 73-85.
    4. Patrick Cheong-Iao Pang & Wenjing Jiang & Guanwen Pu & Kin-Sun Chan & Ying Lau, 2022. "Social Media Engagement in Two Governmental Schemes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Macao," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, July.
    5. J. D. Moffitt & Catherine King & Kathleen M. Carley, 2024. "Connecting the domains: an investigation of internet domains found in Covid-19 conspiracy tweets," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 206-231, September.
    6. Agnieszka Turska-Kawa & Irena Pilch, 2022. "Political beliefs and the acceptance of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic restrictions. The case of Poland," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-25, March.
    7. Jianfeng Guo & Chao Deng & Fu Gu, 2021. "Vaccinations, Mobility and COVID-19 Transmission," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Paul M. Garrett & Yu-Wen Wang & Joshua P. White & Yoshihsa Kashima & Simon Dennis & Cheng-Ta Yang, 2022. "High Acceptance of COVID-19 Tracing Technologies in Taiwan: A Nationally Representative Survey Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Emilio Ferrara & Stefano Cresci & Luca Luceri, 2020. "Misinformation, manipulation, and abuse on social media in the era of COVID-19," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 271-277, November.
    10. Huo, Liang’an & Yu, Yue, 2023. "The impact of the self-recognition ability and physical quality on coupled negative information-behavior-epidemic dynamics in multiplex networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    11. Yachao Li & Sylvia Twersky & Kelsey Ignace & Mei Zhao & Radhika Purandare & Breeda Bennett-Jones & Scott R. Weaver, 2020. "Constructing and Communicating COVID-19 Stigma on Twitter: A Content Analysis of Tweets during the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-12, September.
    12. Jaesun Wang & Seoyong Kim, 2021. "The Paradox of Conspiracy Theory: The Positive Impact of Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories on Preventive Actions and Vaccination Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Anna Ruelens, 2022. "Analyzing user-generated content using natural language processing: a case study of public satisfaction with healthcare systems," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 731-749, May.
    14. Zhaohui Su, 2021. "Rigorous Policy-Making Amid COVID-19 and Beyond: Literature Review and Critical Insights," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-17, November.
    15. Zixuan Weng & Aijun Lin, 2022. "Public Opinion Manipulation on Social Media: Social Network Analysis of Twitter Bots during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-17, December.
    16. Yeon-Jun Choi & Julak Lee & Seung Yeop Paek, 2022. "Public Awareness and Sentiment toward COVID-19 Vaccination in South Korea: Findings from Big Data Analytics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.
    17. Stephen Bok & Daniel E. Martin & Erik Acosta & Maria Lee & James Shum, 2021. "Validation of the COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale and Conditional Indirect Negative Effects on Wearing a Mask in Public," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-23, October.
    18. Federica Maria Magarini & Margherita Pinelli & Arianna Sinisi & Silvia Ferrari & Giovanna Laura De Fazio & Gian Maria Galeazzi, 2021. "Irrational Beliefs about COVID-19: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-21, September.
    19. Nicholas Francis Havey, 2020. "Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 319-342, November.
    20. Hoi-Wing Chan & Connie Pui-Yee Chiu & Shijiang Zuo & Xue Wang & Li Liu & Ying-yi Hong, 2021. "Not-so-straightforward links between believing in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories and engaging in disease-preventive behaviours," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3387-:d:770338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.