What drives public distrust towards COVID-19 vaccination in the Baltic states and Ukraine?

Foto: Ukrainian Institute for the Future

Why do people refuse to be vaccinated? Nowadays this question is often asked by government officials around the world, trying to overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What stands behind the phenomenon of those who do not want to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Why, despite so many information sources and an almost unlimited access to data, a lot of people still do not believe in the vaccination and, even sometimes, in the coronavirus itself? Are there any regional features of this phenomenon that are specific to certain countries?

The Ukrainian Institute for the Future, together with Baltic partners from PROVIDUS (Latvia), Praxis (Estonia), and Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis (Lithuania) will explore the root causes of vaccination inhibition and distrust in vaccines in the Baltic + Ukraine region.

Link to the event & discussion.

An international multilateral expert discussion will focus on the following key aspects:

Why are people afraid of vaccines? What factors make people doubt vaccination? How did the anti-vaccination trend emerge and what is to blame?
What is common and different in the anti-vaccination campaigns in Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia? Is the common history and similar socio-political past one of the reasons for such a slowdown in the vaccination rates of four countries?
What can make vaccine skeptics in the Baltic countries and Ukraine change their minds and get vaccinated against COVID-19?
How did the pandemic affect the relationship between government and society, and what impact is the anti-vaccination movement going to have on the future model of this relationship.

In all four countries anti-vaccine movements have emerged and are evolving with their own characteristics, but they also have common features that can help us better understand why this happened, and thus come up with a real solution to the problem.

The event will be held in English and without translation.

Speakers:

Iveta Kažoka, Director and senior policy analyst, PROVIDUS (Latvia)

Virginija Būdienė, Director, of Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis (Lithuania)

Gintaras Šumskas, Research Director, PhD, Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis (Lithuania)

Urmo Kübar, CEO of Praxis think tank (Estonia)

Vadym Denysenko, Executive Director, Ukrainian Institute for the Future

Moderator of the discussion:

Andriy Kulykov, Journalist, International Relations expert, editor, radio, TV, media expert and media trainer.