The Church Against Vaccines: How the Russian Orthodox Church Opposes Vaccination in Ukraine
UkraineWorld has analysed how the Russian Orthodox Church opposes vaccination in Ukraine. While the development of COVID‑19 vaccines has been an extraordinary success, there are some groups working to make the process of vaccinating people far more difficult.
As of 23 November, only 23% of Ukrainians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with around 6% having received one dose. In comparison, 42% of the world population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 11% having received a single dose. It is thus clear that vaccination in Ukraine has been going quite slowly.
As one of the most crucial issues in the world over the past two years, vaccination against COVID-19 has been used as a subject of various disinformation campaigns, particularly by Russia. The Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine recently analysed the information landscape of Telegram channels, confirming that Russia has been undertaking information operations aimed at reducing the level of vaccination in Ukraine through multiple media channels, particularly through social networks and messengers. The campaign’s messages have mostly concerned negative consequences of vaccination.