An information marathon was held in Romania at the weekend at the same
\ntime as the vaccination marathons held from 8 am to midnight every day from Friday
\nto Sunday at medical centres in the capital Bucharest and around the country. Dozens
\nof doctors and specialists provided information and explanations in events
\nhosted by the National Library in Bucharest and broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube.
\nThe experts discussed a whole range of aspects related to vaccination and the
\nvirus, from possible side effects, allergy, how Covid affects young people to
\nthe introduction of the Covid pass, the situation in hospitals and the impact
\nof fake news, in an attempt to break most Romanians’ reticence to vaccination. <\/p>\n
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The initiative comes at a time when the pace of vaccination has again
\nslowed down. With opinion polls indicating low trust in politicians and
\ndoctors, whose image has been tarnished by many corruption scandals and malpractice
\nover the years, too few people in Romania are convinced that vaccination is the
\nway to overcome the pandemic. Fewer than 25,000 went for their first vaccine
\ndose on Sunday, the lowest numbers in the last three weeks. On Friday, Romania hit
\n50,000 Covid deaths since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n
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Against the background of a
\ngenuine anti-vaccine psychosis, fuelled by part of the media, some politicians
\nand public figures and an entire cohort of conspiracy theorists on social
\nmedia, Romania has the second lowest vaccination rates in the European Union
\nafter Bulgaria, with Croatia and Latvia also seeing low vaccine intake. Reticence
\nto vaccination is more widespread, in fact, in central and eastern Europe. <\/p>\n
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Romanian sociologists believe vaccination rates may pick up again if
\nlegislation is passed to introduce the Covid pass in the workplace. The bill was
\nrejected by the Senate by a margin of two votes, but it’s the Chamber of
\nDeputies that is the decision-making body in this respect, so it may still
\npass. The bill proposes that employees who cannot produce a Covid pass may see
\ntheir work contracts suspended for up to 30 days. If they fail to produce the
\npass beyond this date, state employees face dismissal, while private sector
\nemployees face another suspension or termination of contract. Employees who
\nrefuse vaccination would have to get tested for Covid regularly and at their
\nown expense. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania held \u201cvaccine information marathon at the weekend as vaccine intake again slowed down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":90260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35374,31797],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-covid-19","tag-vaccination"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n