The repercussion of Novak Djokovic’s failed attempt – so far – to enter Australia with a medical exemption granted to unvaccinated against Covid-19 was enormous and generated a series of protests in Serbia, encouraged including by the family of the number 1 tennis player in the world. .
Recent events have made the complex issue of vaccine policy in the European country, in evidence during other moments of the Covid-19 pandemic, come back to the fore.
Right at the beginning of immunization campaigns around the world after the approval of the first vaccines, the country appeared as a positive highlight.
Because of its good relations with China and Russia, the government quickly gained access to doses of Sputnik V and Sinopharm. Other deals, with companies Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, provided even more doses, with a total approaching 15 million — out of a total population of nearly 7 million — in early 2021.
With ample availability and choice of vaccine, the start of the local campaign was considered a success. Three months later, however, the percentages of the immunized population stopped at 40%.
When all those interested in receiving their doses did so, it became evident that a large part of the population would refuse to join the campaign.
“I beg you, get a vaccine,” even declared Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who at the same time gave mixed signals when speaking directly to supporters of his populist government.
The country even opened its doors to foreigners who wanted to be vaccinated in its territory, but it failed to convince many other Serbs. To date, the rates have advanced to only 47% of the fully immunized population.
One problem may be with conspiracy theories. An October 2020 study by Biepag (Balkans Advisory Group in Europe) found that 41.5% of Serbs say they believe in any of the stories without scientific basis linked to Covid-19.
The survey also measured, before doses were available, acceptance of immunizers. In Serbia, around 50% of respondents said they would certainly or probably not accept being vaccinated.
According to an article published on the website of the European institute China-EEC on the anti-vaccination movements in Serbia, the country’s Minister of Health, Zlatibor Loncar, even suggested banning content on social media that harmed the vaccination process.
“But it is a fact that Serbia has been a hotbed of disinformation, fueled by low levels of trust in the government and other institutions contaminated by corruption and a lack of transparency,” the article reads.
A study published in September 2020 in the scientific journal Lancet showed that from November 2015 to December 2019, there was a significant increase in six countries in the number of respondents who strongly disagreed that vaccines in general are safe: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan , Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Serbia.
It is difficult to pinpoint a single explanation for the Serbs’ distrust. Countries in the same region have similar percentages of their populations fully vaccinated, such as Croatia (53%), Montenegro (44%) and Kosovo (44%).
A report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network investigated a group called People’s Patrols, which preaches anti-immigration and anti-“the system” speeches. Although they are also present in acts on the streets, it is on social networks that they do the most damage.
The text, from September this year, points out that a public Facebook group called “Stop censorship”, where messages of the same content circulate, has about 320,000 members, that is, one in ten users of the social network in the country.
Interestingly, months before it came across Djokovic’s case, the Australian network ABC published an article in which it compared the vaccination rates in the country and in Serbia, at the time at similar stages. Today, Australia has reached 77% of the population fully immunized.
The text signed by philosophers Nicholas Agar and Vojin Rakic, the latter professor in Belgrade, addresses what Australians could learn from the failure of the campaign in the European country, after an encouraging start. It also argues that the seeds of mistrust and denialism were planted by Vucic in his initial approach to the pandemic.
In May 2020, pulmonologist Branimir Nestorovic, an advocate of unconventional medical theories and remedies and an adviser to the president, advocated that young people be deliberately infected in order to hasten the end of the epidemic.
“What’s the lesson here? The case of Serbia shows that as leaders seek popularity by offering unscientific views on the pandemic, it can be especially difficult for them to start speaking accurately. People exposed to deep, emotionally resonant ‘truths’ become irritated by factual messages that contradict them,” the article concludes.
Vucic was directly involved in the controversy with Djokovic. “I told our Novak that all of Serbia is with him and that we are doing everything we can to stop the harassment of the best tennis player in the world immediately,” he said.
The tennis player’s family adopted an even more fiery tone, calling for protests and turning the issue into a geopolitical battle.
“They are stepping on Novak to attack Serbia and the Serbian people,” Djokovic’s father Srdjan told reporters in Belgrade. “This has nothing to do with sports, it’s a political agenda. Novak is the best player and the best athlete in the world, but several hundred million Westerners can’t stand that.”
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