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

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; QR codes; conspiracy beliefs; feedback of population; vaccination certification; vaccination rate.

Figure 1

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination progression in Russia. Main figure: Percentage of the vaccinated Russian population (vaccination rate) since the beginning of 2021 thus far. The data are taken from the Gogov statistical agency [2]. Only fully vaccinated persons (at least two doses) are considered. Inset: Exponential growth approximation of the first segment OA (1 January 2021–23 August 2021) (red curve), with x-axis graduated in days since 1 January 2021. Two rounds of governmental discussion of the QR code program are shown as segments AB and CD. See the details and statistical treatment of the approximations in the text.

Figure 2

The frequency of occurrence of the main objections to introducing the nationwide system of vaccination certification/verification based on QR codes found in our survey. In-group percentage shows parts of a group of 5064 persons cautious about the planned QR code-based system. The legend is provided in Table 2.