On the COVID-19 crisis, and vaccination policy, in Russia

10 views
Skip to first unread message

Mark Crispin Miller

unread,
Apr 26, 2020, 11:02:05 PM4/26/20
to newsfromunderground
I asked a Russian friend, who is in touch with vaccine safety activists back home, to provide
us with some information on Russia's handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and that state's policy
on childhood vaccines.

This is enlightening, and tells us that we vaccine safety activists, and advocates of parents'
rights, need to help our counterparts in Russia.

MCM
 
As to the current situation with Covid19 in Moscow, people are ordered to stay home, unless they are essential workers.

“As previously reported by the media, the Moscow government is preparing to ban residents from leaving the apartment without 
special permission, in particular, issued in the form of a QR code - a two-dimensional bar code. In order to go to the pharmacy, 
shop, to work or take out the trash, a person will need to register on the city website, then indicate the purpose of going out and 
get a code-picture, which should be presented to the patrol, if necessary. If you have a computer connected to the Internet with 
a printer or a phone with Internet access, plus the ability to work with a computer or smartphone, then theoretically you should 
not have big problems with leaving your home.”
 
As one of the popular news outlet Vesti puts it:


“If the person who went out onto the street does not have the necessary QR code, the police can fine him or take him home, official
    presentations say. In addition to patrol policemen and Rosgvardeytsy, they can also use billing data from mobile operators, cameras
   in entrances, on the street and in transport, and bank transaction data to control the movement of Muscovites in quarantine. In this 
   case, fines can be issued automatically."

From another popular newspaper, Vedomosti:


“Moscow. 20 April. INTERFAX.RU - The hard access regime introduced in Moscow will be extended until May 1, this will be enough to 
reduce the spread of coronavirus infection, believes Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.”


Lots of related information about RQ-codes can be found here:
And also here:


People cannot protest without its being approved ahead of time by the government, and no in-person protest of the lockdown will
    be approved. “In order to come to a rally, meeting, procession or demonstration, you need to notify the authorities no earlier than 
   2 weeks, but no later than 10 days - even if you speak out against these same authorities. The organizers must submit a notice, 
   provide their data and contacts in it, tell what the event is planned for, for what purpose, where they are going to conduct it, how 
   many—approximately—people will come, and how their safety will be ensured.”
Article on the possibility, in Russia, of protesting against the government:


I have seen people using Yandex (a type of Google) to protest, by placing their location on the map. 

   
Nonetheless, a few physical protests have taken place, such as this one in Vkadikavkaz:


About vaccines for children: 

In the federal law vaccines, are not mandatory just yet, so one still has a right to refuse them. This federal law, including 
compensation for recognized post-vaccination complications, is prescribed in Art. 18, 19 and 20:
 
A bit more about compensation: 
If someone has a proven post-vaccination complication, he is entitled to a one-time cash payment of 10,000 rubles ($130). 
If a child dies, and it can be proved to have been due to a vaccine-related complication, the parents are entitled to a one-
time payment of 30,000 rubles ($400). If a person is disabled due to vaccination, he will receive a supplement to his disability 
allowance, of 1000 rubles per month ($13), although the amount varies, depending on the severity.  
 
(Initially, compensation was tied to the minimum wage, and was much higher. But two years after that law was passed, it 
was modified. 

Most of the vaccines that children receive at the expense of the budget (both federal and local) are produced in Russia. 
But foreign vaccines also are available. The total budget for vaccines now amounts to 23 billion rubles, and the vaccine 
schedule is expanding, as vaccines for chicken pox, rotavirus A, and the human papillomavirus have been added; and 
the state wants to increase the budget by another 27 billion rubles.  The main Russian manufacturers are two giant 
companies—Rusnano and Rostec—which are managed by the oligarchs Chubais and Chemizov, respectively. Chubais 
is linked to the Sci-B-Vac vaccine, which was the cause of a class-action lawsuit in Israel.
Here are the documents for the hearings in the State Duma. They include information about the budgetary sums noted above:

By the way, we have minimal instructions for vaccines produced in Russia, with inadequate information on possible side 
effects or complications. This is especially true of vaccines from the Vector Institute:

Parents can get some foreign vaccines for a fee—and they are quite expensive. For example, the foreign  vaccine for 
meningitis costs from 9 to 20 thousand rubles. To put this in perspective, the average salary is 40 - 50 thousand rubles 
a month. Sometimes such vaccines are purchased by the state and can be   offered free of charge. But this is rather 
the exception. Many parents prefer vaccines made overseas, considering them safer than those made in Russia. 

There is a very active group called “The Immune Response” that I should mention. While they don't advocate specifically 
against vaccines, they call for more freedom of information, the right to choose, the rights of parents generally, and for 
increasing compensation for victims.
Here is their resolution:
“We constantly write to the Duma, attend hearings in the Duma, etc. In principle, we managed to change the agenda and   
call attention to our activities,” said one member of the group.





Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages