“I never thought, when I started this job, I would live through something like this,” Ionita said. “I never thought such a disaster could happen, that we would end up taking the whole family to the grave.”
Some floors above, all beds except one of the hospital’s expanded intensive care units are now full. A nurse was changing a bed sheet on an empty bed – empty, because the person who had occupied it was now lying in the morgue.
Health workers and officials attribute this low vaccination rate to a variety of factors, including suspicions by authorities, deep religious beliefs and a wide range of misinformation pervasive in the media. social media.
When Dr. Alexandra Munteanu, 32, took up her assignment at one of Bucharest’s vaccination centers after a night shift in the hospital, she noticed low turnout. She is confused that the severity of the disease does not seem to have come yet.
One of the country’s most vocal and well-known anti-vaxxers is Diana Sosoaca, a member of the Romanian Senate. In one of her public stunts, she tried to block people from entering a vaccination center in her constituency in the northeast of the country.
“If you love your kids, stop getting vaccinated,” she said in a video clip on her Facebook page. “Don’t kill them!”
The vaccines offered in Romania have been extensively tested for use in children and have proven to be safe and effective, but that hasn’t stopped her and others from spreading the word. myths on social media and local television.
Officials and medical staff are frustrated that public figures have done too much to sabotage their efforts.
“Look at the facts,” said Colonel Dr. Valeriu Gheorghita, an army doctor who runs the national vaccination campaign. “We have intensive care units full of patients. We have a lot of new cases. Unfortunately, we have hundreds of deaths every day. So this is the reality. And over 90 % of patients who die because of not being vaccinated.”
In Bucharest, a large banner was hung, covering half of the facade of a building on a major boulevard. “They’re suffocating. They’re begging us. They’re regretting,” are the words printed in large black above black-and-white photographs of doctors grappling with Covid patients in a care room special squirrel.
Below, few passersby glanced up at the poster and even less interested in sharing their thoughts with CNN. Soon, however, that banner will appear in other major cities across the country.
“There is manipulation,” said a woman who gave her name only as Claudia, adding: “Some people don’t believe in vaccines.”
Mayor: ‘It’s not a safe vaccine’
Here, the manager of the main hospital, Dr. Alexandru Calancea, 40, talks about the speciality of this region, where he was born and raised.
“The district is very religious. It’s an area with a strong religious tradition, and a lot of people are religious. […] Few [priests] is pro-vaccine, and I certainly know some anti-vax people. Most of them choose not to say anything, either for or against. We have evidence, from hospitals, from patients from similar religious communities, where their priest, or their pastor, has advised them not to get vaccinated, that’s all. ”
Just outside Suceava, in the village of Bosanci, one such pastor also serves as the mayor of the village. Neculai Miron was once one of the most vocal public dissenters in the country, and today is no different.
“We’re not against vaccination, but we want to verify it, to satisfy our concerns, because of the many side effects,” he told CNN. “We don’t think the vaccine components are very safe. It’s not a safe vaccine.”
The medical data didn’t affect him, and neither did the local GP he brought the CNN team to see.
While she talked about the situation in the village, the mayor, Miron, walked around the doctor’s desk, looking down at the papers on her desk to see who had been vaccinated.
“When are you going to get vaccinated, Mr. Mayor?” Afadaroaie asked with a smile.
“I don’t need vaccinations,” he replied. “I’m perfectly fine.” Your doctor’s explanation that the vaccine helps you stay that way while you’re deaf.
Pastor: ‘I believe what I see more than what I hear’
In rural villages like these, poverty and lack of education, along with the personal influence of local leaders and traditional religious beliefs, can create a deadly combination.
But the local Pentecostal pastor, Dragos Croitoru, insists he is not aware of any Covid-19 deaths in the parish. “Here in the church, we don’t have any cases of people getting sick from coronavirus. We have a death rate of 0%, I don’t know of anyone who has died of coronavirus here in my parish. And I believe what I see, more than what I hear,” he said.
Despite hearing CNN about the bodies of Covid-19 victims filling the morgue at Bucharest University Hospital, Croitoru remained unconvinced. “As far as I know, Bucharest is bigger than Bosanci,” he chuckled. “We haven’t had anyone die yet. We’ve probably had a few sick people in the village, yes, as far as I know. But the death rate in our church is zero.”
Mortality rates are certainly high elsewhere in this predominantly rural county. Suceava ranks third in the nation’s Covid-19 death rate as of early November, according to figures from the Public Health Unit, which oversees deaths.
A corner of the main cemetery in Suceava, the county seat about 10 minutes from Bosanci, is filled with freshly dug graves. In the cemetery’s chapel, a service is underway. On the hill behind the chapel, mourners gathered for the funeral. Nearby, another grave is being prepared.
The wooden crosses on each new grave do not indicate the cause of death, so it is unclear how many people died from the virus. However, a man who was working at one of the graves said the number of people being buried was much later than usual.
“Eternal regret,” reads a ribbon hanging from one of the graves.
Back at the Bucharest University Hospital morgue, a paramedic drove a nail into a wooden coffin. A colleague sprayed disinfectant on the coffin.
For those who die of Covid, there will be no open funerals in coffins.
Nurse Ionita said: “Vaccines mean the difference between life and death. “Everybody should understand that. Maybe in their last hour they should understand that.”
For the people wrapped in black bags in front of him, it was already too late.
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