How a Soviet Past Influences the Present: Vaccine Hesitancy in the Russian-speaking Population Today
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i2.2880Keywords:
vaccine hesitancy, public health, health education, russian speaking community, health care access, health care policyAbstract
The Russian-speaking population in the United States has shown a notoriously high prevalence of vaccine hesitancy. The same trends are present in the former Soviet republics. This was illuminated during the COVID-19 pandemic as World Health Organization cited this demographic as among the lowest vaccinated. This study aims at discovering key factors behind vaccine hesitancy in the Russian-speaking population in former Soviet republics and the USA.
From August to November of 2021, twenty five 30-minute interviews with subjects ranging between ages 16-81 were conducted in Russian. Through these 25 interviews, 15 with immigrants in the Russian-speaking community in Washington State and 10 with residents of Russia and Ukraine, coupled with reviews of published literature and online sources, a strong relationship between vaccine hesitancy and a multitude of factors was established.
The key factors behind vaccine hesitancy documented in this study were tied to subjects’ experiences and culture in the former Soviet Union. Among these was a strong distrust of government, doubts towards the healthcare system, mistrust of medical professionals, a Soviet medical culture that questions prophylactic treatment options, the eruption of a consumer-dominated society in the post-soviet era, and misinformation in the media. For immigrants in the U.S., a general confusion with the American healthcare system was also a contributing factor.
These findings reveal key drivers of vaccine hesitancy in one of the lowest vaccinated demographics overall, highlighting the persisting importance of Soviet background. Shining light on these factors is essential for combating vaccine hesitancy in this population.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Belluz, Julia. "Washington measles outbreak: why it's mostly affecting Russian speakers." Vox. 20 March 2019. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18263688/measles-outbreak-2019-clark-county. Accessed 3 Apr 2022.
Bogomiagkova, E S. "Otnosheniye rossiyan k vaktsinatsii ot covid-19: problemi i protivorechiya [The Attitude of Russians to Vaccination Against COVID-19: Problems and Contradictions]." Problemy Sotsialnoi Gigieny I Istoriia Meditsiny [Problems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of Medicine] 29.1 (2021): 736-742. https:/doi.org/10.32687/0869-866X-2021-29-s1-736-742
Briko, N I, et al. "Otsenka otnosheniya k immunoprofilaktike razlichnykh grup naseleniya Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Assessment of attitudes toward immunization prophylaxis in different groups of population in Russian Federation]." Zhurnal mikrobiologii, èpidemiologii i immunobiologii [Journal of microbiology, epidemiology and immunology] 2.1 (2017): 98-103. https://doi.org/10.36233/0372-9311-2017-2-98-103
Broniatowski, David A, et al. "Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate." American Journal of Public Health 108.10 (2018): 1378-1384. https://dx.doi.org/10.2105%2FAJPH.2018.304567
Burki, Talha Khan. "The Russian vaccine for COVID-19." The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 8.11 (2020): E85-E86. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30402-1
Cowden, John D. "Childhood Vaccine Refusal by Immigrant Groups." NEJM Journal Watch. 29 June 2016. https://www.jwatch.org/fw111744/2016/06/29/childhood-vaccine-refusal-immigrant-groups. Accessed 2 Apr 2022.
Fuson, Melissa. "Clinics Fight Vaccine Hesitancy in Russian-Speaking Communities | Vitals." 14 May 2021. Vitals by Sutter Health. 19 March 2022. https://vitals.sutterhealth.org/clinics-fighting-vaccine-hesitancy-in-russian-speaking-communities. Accessed 23 March 2022.
Gryaznyevich, Vladimir. "Russian consumerism: market boom chaos." openDemocracy. 10 January 2013. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russian-consumerism-market-boom-chaos. Accessed 25 March 2022.
Hoang, Joy M. "Vaccination Back in the USSR: A Historical Analysis of Soviet Vaccination Programs and Their Effects." Waco, May 2020. https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2104/10921/2.0%20Final%20Draft%20Thesis%20JHoang%2020200416.pdf. Accessed 23 Feb 2022.
Hoch, Steven L. "The Social Consequences of Soviet Immunization Policies, 1945-1980." Washington: University of Iowa, 11 08 1997. https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1997-812-03g-Hoch.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan 2022.
Kraft, Kristian Bandlien and Ingeborg Elgersma. "COVID-19 vaccination rates among health care workers by immigrant background. A nation-wide registry study from Norway." medRxiv, 17 09 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.17.21263619
Krieger, E A, et al. "Otnosheniye roditelei k vaktsinatsii detei i faktori, svyazanniye s otkazom ot privivok [Parents' attitudes to childhood vaccinations and vaccination refusal factors]." Arkhangelsk: Northern State Medical University, 2015. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/otnoshenie-roditeley-k-vaktsinatsii-detey-i-faktory-svyazannye-s-otkazom-ot-privivok/viewer. Accessed 18 Jan 2022.
Larson, Heidi J, et al. "The State of Vaccine Confidence 2016: Global Insights Through a 67-Country Survey." eBioMedicine 12.1 (2016): 295-301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.08.042
Russian Federation. "Zakon o zdravookhranenii [Healthcare Legislation]." Moscow, 29 07 1971. http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&prevDoc=102017036&backlink=1&&nd=102010125. Accessed 18 Jan 2022.
"Russian Federation: WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard With Vaccination Data." n.d. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. 19 March 2022. https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/ru. Accessed 23 March 2022.
Ryazantsev, S.V., M.N. Khramova and A.V. Smirnov. "Sotsialno-demograficheskie aspekti vaktsinatsii naseleniya Rossii v kontekste pandemii COVID-19 [The social demographic aspects of vaccination of population of Russia in the context of COVID-19 pandemic]." Problemy Sotsialnoi Gigieny I Istoriia Meditsiny [Problems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of Medicine] 29.5 (2021): 1047-1056. https://doi.org/10.32687/0869-866x-2021-29-5-1047-1056
"The geopolitics of covid vaccines in Europe's eastern neighbourhood." European Council on Foreign Relations. 27 January 2021. https://ecfr.eu/article/the-geopolitics-of-covid-vaccines-in-europes-eastern-neighbourhood. Accessed 26 March 2022.
Tilton, Aaron and Sergey Satanovskiy. "Coronavirus vaccine: Why are so many Russians skeptical of the COVID shot?" 28 October 2021. https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-vaccine-why-are-so-many-russians-skeptical-of-the-covid-shot/a-59644858. Accessed 2 April 2022.
Twigg, Judy. "Why Aren't Russians Getting Vaccinated?" Think Global Health. 26 July 2021. https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/why-arent-russians-getting-vaccinated. Accessed 7 April 2022.
Washington State Department of Health. "Study of Childhood Immunization in Washington State Russian-Speaking Populations." DOH, State of Washington, December 2012. https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/Documents/Pubs//348-354-RussianFocusGroup.pdf. Accessed 3 March 2022.
Berman R. "Why are COVID-19 cases surging in Russia?" 12 October 2021. Medical News Today. 19 March 2022. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/russians-have-a-hard-time-trusting-their-own-vaccine-expert-says. Accessed 30 March 2022.
Yeritzyan, Kseniya Y. "Sotsialno-psikhologicheskiye faktori prinyatiya resheniya o vaktsinatsii [Phsycho-social factors in decisions regarding vaccination]." St Petersburg, 2017. (PDF) СОЦИАЛЬНО-ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ФАКТОРЫ ПРИНЯТИЯ РЕШЕНИЯ О ВАКЦИНАЦИИ | Ksenia Eritsyan - Academia.edu. Accessed 3 April 2022.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2022 Jonathan Tyshler; Nathan Manning
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
