As many as 67% of citizens who became infected with Kovid 19 were unvaccinated and 32% were fully vaccinated, according to the analyzes of the Ministry of Health made from August until now.
The number of Macedonian citizens vaccinated with one dose of the corona virus vaccine, as of December 12, is 41,1%, and the number of fully vaccinated (with two doses) is 39,4%, 83.614 people were vaccinated with the third dose. The largest number of people vaccinated with one dose is the population over 18 years old, 51%, and with two doses, this population has the largest scope, around 48,9%, while 57% of citizens over 40 years old have been revaccinated.
Coverage with one dose of the vaccine among the working-age population (18-64 years) is 46,3%, while 44,2% were vaccinated with two doses. The majority of persons who were vaccinated with two doses belong to the age group of 25-49 years.
"22 percent of vaccinated citizens over the age of 60 received the third dose of the vaccine. Coverage of the adult population with one dose of the vaccine is about 50 percent. Vaccination is taking place smoothly at all points in the country, and field vaccination is also underway," the Ministry of Health announced.
They are calling for mass vaccination as it is the only way to fight the virus.
The level of vaccination is the same everywhere in Macedonia. In the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country, there is the least interest in vaccination. If we look at the cities, then the largest number of vaccinated in the southeastern part of the country is in the cities of Negotino, Kavadarci and Đevđelija, where the percentage is more than 50%, as well as Resen, and the fewest vaccinated are in Gostivar, Strumica and Debro, where the percentage is below 30%. Strumica is the city with the least vaccinated population at 27,9% and Negotino with the highest at 54,7%. In the capital Skopje, 38% of the population received two doses.
The unvaccinated suffer the most
As many as 98% of those who ended up in the hospital due to Kovid 19 were unvaccinated, that is, 67% who contracted Kovid were unvaccinated and 32% were fully vaccinated. This is shown by the analyzes of the Ministry of Health made from August until now. Even 98% of those who had problems with the corona virus and ended up in the hospital were unvaccinated. Only 2% of those currently hospitalized were vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine. The biggest victims are the unvaccinated. The analysis shows that the death rate is drastically higher among the unvaccinated. In the period from 06-08 to 16-12 2021, 19 people died of COVDID-2272 in the country, of which 1790 patients were not vaccinated, and only 21% received the vaccine.
Analyzes made by the Ministry of Health show that the deceased had several combined chronic diseases. They were vaccinated with all types of vaccines that are available in our country, as well as the patients who were vaccinated at Moderna and Jonson. The most applied was Pfizer vaccine - 768352, then Sinovac 49265, Sinofarm 304078, Astra Zeneka 135278, and the least vaccine was received from the manufacturer Sputnje 45992.
"The Ministry of Health points out the importance of vaccination and reiterates that every vaccine we have available is safe. We appeal to citizens to get vaccinated, because this is the only way we will achieve collective immunity and prevent the spread of Sars-COV2 mutations," the Ministry of Health requests.
For the year 2022, half a million Fazer vaccines, of which 1% are for children
The government has decided to procure half a million vaccines for 2022. They will be purchased exclusively from the manufacturer Pfize. One percent of the acquired vaccines will be intended for children between 5 and 12 years of age, and these are the so-called pediatric doses, and there are 10.000 of them in total. According to the information, delivery of doses for infants should begin in May, and pediatric doses in the first quarter of 2022, and the total amount should be delivered by December 2022.
"The procurement of this amount of vaccines against COVID-19 for 2022 is for the protection of public health and for restarting the economy, which represents the public interest," said the Ministry of Health.
How to increase the number of vaccinated
So far, the government has not found a successful formula to increase the number of vaccinated people, since experts claim that about 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated for immunization. The attempt of the Commission for Combating Infectious Diseases to introduce mandatory vaccination for doctors and administration also failed. This proposal was rejected by the Government, although it was also supported by the Association of Pretrial Chambers of Macedonia. They even demanded that mandatory vaccination be introduced for the private sector as well. But a dilemma arose, what to do with workers who do not want to be vaccinated. Proposals ranged from doing PCR tests at their own expense and delivering them to their employers to employers paying for their PCR tests. Since neither solution was acceptable, the Ministry of Health decided that workers who do not want to be vaccinated will not be punished. According to the Ministry, there is no mechanism by which this would be legally implemented.
"On the other hand, realistically it is a big financial burden. What will happen to workers who can't bear the burden of testing and can't get vaccinated? This means that those same companies should fire those workers," said Filipče after the Government's decision not to introduce mandatory vaccination of doctors and administration. No additional restrictive measures have been introduced to fight against COVID-19. The government only made a decision on a one-time financial reward of 30 DEN per patient for family doctors if they reach and exceed coverage of 70% by vaccinating their patients from the total number registered with them, as part of the measures for greater immunization of the population. Family physicians will receive a bonus for patients who will be vaccinated against COVID-19 at the end of spring or beginning of summer 2022. The largest number of patients that one family physician has is 2.500, on average around 1000 patients, and that is not a sum that can be ignored.
Family doctors responded to this by calling the proposal of Minister Filipća and the Government on paying a bonus per vaccinated patient very rude. They do not accept this type of stimulation model and responded that they were always conditioned to receive a higher salary instead of being rewarded.
"Our patients have been hearing about the corona virus and vaccines for two years, so they are sufficiently informed, sufficiently aware, they consulted in the past two years, each patient with their family doctor and those who could, got vaccinated," said the president. association of private doctors of Macedonia Lidija Dervišova.
For now, there are no thoughts on the introduction of mandatory vaccination of the population.
Destroyed vaccines that have expired
At the beginning of October this year, Macedonia destroyed 13000 doses of vaccines that it received as a donation from Bulgaria and produced by Fajzer. The deadline for the vaccines was September 30, and out of a total of 51480 doses of vaccines, 38480 doses were used.
Until now, on several occasions, we have issued decisions, i.e. approvals for the destruction of vaccines manufactured by Pajzer, Astra Zeneka and Sinofarm, informed Ljirim Šabani, Acting Director of the "Malmed" Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices. But the director did not provide information on the quantities that have been destroyed so far and how much it cost to dispose of those drugs.
"Destruction of all medicines is prescribed by the Medicines Act. We do this regularly for all registered medicines, not just vaccines. According to the same regulations, previous vaccines were also destroyed. Vaccines are destroyed on several grounds - expiration date, change of the vaccine itself since it passed all the processes. Or again if some deviation from the cold chain was made during transport," Shabani informed. Citizens who believe that they had unwanted consequences after vaccination also reported to the Agency, and received reports from 88 pharmacists as well as 10 health workers.
Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theories
72% of respondents believe that the world is run by a few powerful families, 65% think that COVID-19 was created in a laboratory to control people
"Stop fascist measures"
Under this motto, anti-vaxxers protested in Skopje last month, as well as in other cities revolted by the measures announced by the Government regarding the possible mandatory vaccination of doctors and administration. They carried banners that read "NO to mandatory vaccination", "vaccinated people can get infected too", "stop discrimination", as well as "my body, my choice".
The protests were not massive, but they mostly spread their influence on social networks. Their theses are that: "covid therapy is death", "vaccine is poison"; "Bill Gates wants to depopulate the planet". Such attitudes were also reflected in public opinion, as shown by the last survey conducted by the Institute for Democracy "Societas Civilis" IDSCS, conducted in cooperation with the Presidential Center for Political Education in June 2021, and showed that the majority of citizens believe in the conspiracy theory when in the matter of covid 19. according to research carried out in the field, 72% of respondents believe that the world is run by a few powerful families, 65% think that covid 19 was created in a laboratory to control people, 46% that the climate is controlled by satellites and radars, 44% that there were more deaths from covid since the Ministry of Health gave money, 46% that the virus is sprayed from airplanes, 29% think that climate change is nonsense and 57% that the big media are spreading lies.
Such conspiracy theories are more likely to be believed by the unemployed and those with primary and secondary education than those with higher education. And citizens between the ages of 30 and 39 believe less compared to other age groups.
"43% of those with higher education believe that the Ministry bribed, while the same opinion is present among 53% of those with secondary education"ž
Higher education is a factor influencing susceptibility to conspiracy theories. Thus, there is a clear difference in attitudes regarding the pandemic, where 65% of those with higher education believe that it was created to control people, compared to 74% of those with secondary education. 43% of those with higher education believe that the climate is controlled by radars and satellites, compared to 58% of those with secondary education and 62% with primary education. It is similar to the theories about the falsification of the number of deaths from covid 19, where 43% of those with higher education believe that the Ministry bribed them, while the same opinion is present among 53% of those with secondary education and 61% of those with primary education. In relation to the level of education, the difference is also visible in the theory that climate change is nonsense, but it is between those with primary education (42%) and those with secondary and higher education (about 30%), according to the research.
In these conditions, Macedonia remains with a very low rate of vaccinated citizens and with a constant number of infected, which in the last few months ranges between 10 and 15%.
This text was created as a joint project between Vijesti.me from Montenegro and the newspaper (Koha) from Macedonia.
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