Baggage. Years worth of Baggage and Russia as our neighbour doesn’t help.
Main reasons:
Low trust in government.
Lower education levels.
Lots of misinformation and false information. The government is here to blame, The media space is a free for all with pretty much 0 consequences. Even the respected outlets have added fuel to The fire.
Populism.
Bad vaccine program and roll out.
Stubborn people.
Low trust in science, because many people over the age of 40 have not graduated from high-school.
Well , look at the map , where is the biggest anti covid vaxers ?Ex USSR.People there have learned NOT to trust goverment by default.That trait is slowley dying , as people are becoming more and more naive , but many still have working brains and dont trust govermnet just because goverment says something.Basicly , if someone gets into goverment , he is privatley labeled as a idiot by many people.No decent person is in goverment at this time in LV goverment.Hence , we dont trust covid vacine.It is not about the vacine , it is about MAJOR distrust and disgust towards goverment.Combine that with fact that health minister was sudenley canceled in midle of pandemic and replaced with some PR companies mouth piece who used his old job to make pro covid vacine adds , which was 99 % copy paste of US covid vacine adds.Also , polititians made a mistake by taking part in vacinating campaing , thus basicly corupting that campaing by just being in it.Latvians are simple ,they think if a polititian is involved in something , it is a fucking scam. And it usually is.
Edit:
Also – constant govermnet bullying that there will be a law that without vacine a person will not be able to work and go to school definetly did not help. Movies and Bars are basicly dead because of this.
In short , if you want WORST VACINE CAMPAING in Europe example , thats LV vacine campaing.
But why do others care whether someone else is vaccinated or not?
A graph I saw comparing us to other Baltic states some time ago showed that Latvia had a delay early in the year. Might be differences in roll out policy or more hestiation due to scandal about Astra Zeneca being bought, which then got some bad publicity over possible complications.
There hasn’t been much pressure or incentive to get vaccinated ( other than health benefits) until recently so maybe the statistics will improve.
Also we are very passive people and generaly don’t bother others. Getting or not getting vaccinated is a personal decision and we don’t bother the people around us with our opinions on the subject( for the most part)
Recently anti-vaxers have begun to protest because of more government preasure to get vaccinated. The protests have radicalised both sides of the argument so the “not bothering others” thing has sort of been thrown out of the window.
I didn’t care about people not getting vaccinated before the protests. Now i am okay with police going to your house and stabbing you with the vaccine
To put it bluntly, there is a very low trust in the government.
Ok, let’s compare it to Denmark. They have 5x the population but they have achieved bigger vaccination rates with a more individualistic approach to vaccinate people. The government recognizes it’s mistakes and actually cares about people. People pay a lot of taxes but they get a lot of it back too. (And they decided early on that vaccination should be voluntary to avoid resistance) They refused AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines because they had problems which raised the trust too. (And then our govt decided to buy the same AZ vaccines that the Danish refused)
Whereas here, for a politician to admit that he was wrong is something unthinkable. It’s like taking a bull’s dick in the ass for them. They just act like they have always thought correctly or never mention it again and brush it under the carpet. (It has very strongly been shown during the pandemic) People just don’t trust the parliament anymore. There are way too many money/power grabbers and with with this voting system where you can vote for a party rather than persons of your own choosing, it doesn’t even matter when people have given someone a lot of minuses (i.e. Solvita Āboltiņa), as long as you hold a large influence in the party, you will get voted in. The creation of Vaccination Bureau and filling it with political/personal friends rather than ACTUAL medical proffessionals didn’t help either.
Of course, Danish have a more collectivist thinking and Latvians have a more individualistic thinking.
Tāda kovida nav nah.
I heard some ruskis are waiting for “sputnik” or w/e it’s called in Russia, ye gl with that.
Today I learned: unvaccinated = anti-vaxer.
Too many retards in our country
Latvija uzvara
Ak kungs, I feel like I’m reading posts about Texas.
If anything is to happen to us because of the vaccine, no one will take responsibility. Not very motivating, especially if you do not have a short memory:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EzHADr1Bfs
The sad truth, my mother asked me not to tell grandma that I got vaccinated because she doesn’t trust vaccines
-_________________________-
Most things already mentioned in other comments
also:
Confirmation bias
We have a bad education system, most people just sleep through school.
One elder guy that I know (70+) had a neighbour friend (60+) that got vaccinated and 2 days later he was dead. Well after this and a visit to a doctor (who didnt recommend to get a shot because of hearth related health issues) he is not considering to vaccinate at all. So not all people who dont vaccinate are some dumb anti government russian zombies.
I would have to say that its “Low trust in goverment”. And i think the Latvian goverment has earned it.
Hello my latvian brothers we understand your pain we got the same neighbour
Countries with high levels of distrust have a tendency of having lots of anti-vaxxers. What comes from the distrust – people look for information on fb, not from gvt officials (especially the middle-aged demo), a number of politicians use this whole situation to build upon their political capital, as it is a great moment to go against the grain and mindwash people in basically putting them on a pedestal by sacrificing lives and other peoples wellbeing and comfort.
Overall, a stupid situation, even my own mother is an anti-vaxxer and we choose to just not talk about covid, as that just makes me think that she is stupid (which she really is not) and vice versa. It does not even piss me off that much, just makes me really sad and disappointed in half of my people.
Also, one of the worst things is that none of the anti-vaxx things ever stick. Like, their theories and other bullshit. In the last year+ all of that has been proven wrong and yet those people still believe the same bullshitters. I kinda do not understand how someone can believe a person in something that radical, when every single thing they have said, relating to that topic, has been complete trash and proven wrong.
Eh.
Boomeri
Life is suffering
Because two politicians are using them.
We don’t like any vaccine’s, that’s why
Lots of misinformation everywhere.
Also as there are quite a lot of people distrusting the government and vaccines, every populist politician wants their votes in the next election, adding oil to the fire. Now there are 5 or so political parties focused on antivax/anti establishment as their main platform. And doing everything they can to keep these people on edge, spreading misinformation, blaming the government on everything they can come up with, orchestrating protests. Every other place in the political spectrum is already pretty well saturated and divided among political parties, but the most prominent populist party from last elections shat itself pretty hard, and as the antivaxers are often the most gullible people, without some serious political affiliation, or with some anti establishment mindset, everybody wants a piece of the cake (votes). Even some long gone and pretty much universally disliked politicians like Šlesers suddenly crawled out of the swamp to create a new party and save everybody from the needle, as there is no chance for him to get elected in any other way.
And I think one more factor is that we never had very bad situation with Covid, compared to many other places in the world. Even our neighbors Lithuania had it way worse. Especially in the beginning, in 2020, when they were running out of body bags in Italy, we had like double digit numbers of cases per day, we were one of the least affected EU countries for a long time. So many don’t see Covid as something too serious.
Also it’s strange that in overall numbers we are not that far behind the rest of the Europe, but the situation with 60+ is very bad. Difficult to tell why. Maybe there is larger Russian influence, as older people pretty much all speak Russian and consume more Russian media. Or the vaccine roll out was not very well organised to get these people first, I remember it was pretty slow at first, and then suddenly we got lots of vaccines and it opened for everyone. Dunno.
I’m sure social media also plays a large role in this. Especially Facebook. These days if you open comments even for something completely unrelated to pandemic or vaccines, you can expect someone will be comparing vaccination to genocide there.
What do these numbers have to do with anti-vaxxers?
Because our old people lived under USSR propaganda 50+ years, and they know how to recognize Government Lies. They are not easy to be fooled.
But people over other side of Iron Curtain don`t have such experience, and that`s why it is so easy to trick them.
We a bit retarded ay
Many cases were women experience vaccination very heavily(heavy cramping, shivering, high temperature) There are reasons for bad reputation of covid vaccines.
If you take yellow fever vaccine, you most likely will not experience any side effects. No one complains about that vaccine. Covid vaccine, however, sometimes causes problems. Why like this? Why would I enjoy and happily go and take that vaccine? Especially for women. Also I know people who got sick after vaccination with covid. How do you like that? Also I have seen woman suffer from that vaccine for 2 days. Was it hallucination of mine?
All those bio companies needs to do is reduce side effects. People are not stubborn… but they want to delay the possibility of these consequences. Who wants to shiver wildly and be unable to walk just because of vaccine?
I am annoyed with people who think Russians are guilty again with the fact that Riga is still not vaccinated fully… I am also annoyed that Latvians take this vaccination personally… as if they are superior and super smart, but those who do not want to take vaccine are enemies of the country and very stupid.
Btw… I did not have the choice not to take it. Already vaccinated…
A lot of propaganda from every Russian source. Low intellect in people. Distrust in government. And lack of basic logic. And an unwillingness to be wrong about anything. Let to a situation now where the goverment is trying to force it and people due to principle refuseing
38 comments
Because we generally aren’t too bright.
Viss slikti
Baggage. Years worth of Baggage and Russia as our neighbour doesn’t help.
Main reasons:
Low trust in government.
Lower education levels.
Lots of misinformation and false information. The government is here to blame, The media space is a free for all with pretty much 0 consequences. Even the respected outlets have added fuel to The fire.
Populism.
Bad vaccine program and roll out.
Stubborn people.
Low trust in science, because many people over the age of 40 have not graduated from high-school.
Well , look at the map , where is the biggest anti covid vaxers ?Ex USSR.People there have learned NOT to trust goverment by default.That trait is slowley dying , as people are becoming more and more naive , but many still have working brains and dont trust govermnet just because goverment says something.Basicly , if someone gets into goverment , he is privatley labeled as a idiot by many people.No decent person is in goverment at this time in LV goverment.Hence , we dont trust covid vacine.It is not about the vacine , it is about MAJOR distrust and disgust towards goverment.Combine that with fact that health minister was sudenley canceled in midle of pandemic and replaced with some PR companies mouth piece who used his old job to make pro covid vacine adds , which was 99 % copy paste of US covid vacine adds.Also , polititians made a mistake by taking part in vacinating campaing , thus basicly corupting that campaing by just being in it.Latvians are simple ,they think if a polititian is involved in something , it is a fucking scam. And it usually is.
Edit:
Also – constant govermnet bullying that there will be a law that without vacine a person will not be able to work and go to school definetly did not help. Movies and Bars are basicly dead because of this.
In short , if you want WORST VACINE CAMPAING in Europe example , thats LV vacine campaing.
But why do others care whether someone else is vaccinated or not?
A graph I saw comparing us to other Baltic states some time ago showed that Latvia had a delay early in the year. Might be differences in roll out policy or more hestiation due to scandal about Astra Zeneca being bought, which then got some bad publicity over possible complications.
There hasn’t been much pressure or incentive to get vaccinated ( other than health benefits) until recently so maybe the statistics will improve.
Also we are very passive people and generaly don’t bother others. Getting or not getting vaccinated is a personal decision and we don’t bother the people around us with our opinions on the subject( for the most part)
Recently anti-vaxers have begun to protest because of more government preasure to get vaccinated. The protests have radicalised both sides of the argument so the “not bothering others” thing has sort of been thrown out of the window.
I didn’t care about people not getting vaccinated before the protests. Now i am okay with police going to your house and stabbing you with the vaccine
Im guessing its mostly russians.
Because we are as sharp as a marble.
apparently because [pandēmiiiijas nau](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcyrBvg_gFs)
based
To put it bluntly, there is a very low trust in the government.
Ok, let’s compare it to Denmark. They have 5x the population but they have achieved bigger vaccination rates with a more individualistic approach to vaccinate people. The government recognizes it’s mistakes and actually cares about people. People pay a lot of taxes but they get a lot of it back too. (And they decided early on that vaccination should be voluntary to avoid resistance) They refused AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines because they had problems which raised the trust too. (And then our govt decided to buy the same AZ vaccines that the Danish refused)
Whereas here, for a politician to admit that he was wrong is something unthinkable. It’s like taking a bull’s dick in the ass for them. They just act like they have always thought correctly or never mention it again and brush it under the carpet. (It has very strongly been shown during the pandemic) People just don’t trust the parliament anymore. There are way too many money/power grabbers and with with this voting system where you can vote for a party rather than persons of your own choosing, it doesn’t even matter when people have given someone a lot of minuses (i.e. Solvita Āboltiņa), as long as you hold a large influence in the party, you will get voted in. The creation of Vaccination Bureau and filling it with political/personal friends rather than ACTUAL medical proffessionals didn’t help either.
Of course, Danish have a more collectivist thinking and Latvians have a more individualistic thinking.
Tāda kovida nav nah.
I heard some ruskis are waiting for “sputnik” or w/e it’s called in Russia, ye gl with that.
Today I learned: unvaccinated = anti-vaxer.
Too many retards in our country
Latvija uzvara
Ak kungs, I feel like I’m reading posts about Texas.
If anything is to happen to us because of the vaccine, no one will take responsibility. Not very motivating, especially if you do not have a short memory:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EzHADr1Bfs
The sad truth, my mother asked me not to tell grandma that I got vaccinated because she doesn’t trust vaccines
-_________________________-
Most things already mentioned in other comments
also:
Confirmation bias
We have a bad education system, most people just sleep through school.
One elder guy that I know (70+) had a neighbour friend (60+) that got vaccinated and 2 days later he was dead. Well after this and a visit to a doctor (who didnt recommend to get a shot because of hearth related health issues) he is not considering to vaccinate at all. So not all people who dont vaccinate are some dumb anti government russian zombies.
I would have to say that its “Low trust in goverment”. And i think the Latvian goverment has earned it.
Hello my latvian brothers we understand your pain we got the same neighbour
Countries with high levels of distrust have a tendency of having lots of anti-vaxxers. What comes from the distrust – people look for information on fb, not from gvt officials (especially the middle-aged demo), a number of politicians use this whole situation to build upon their political capital, as it is a great moment to go against the grain and mindwash people in basically putting them on a pedestal by sacrificing lives and other peoples wellbeing and comfort.
Overall, a stupid situation, even my own mother is an anti-vaxxer and we choose to just not talk about covid, as that just makes me think that she is stupid (which she really is not) and vice versa. It does not even piss me off that much, just makes me really sad and disappointed in half of my people.
Also, one of the worst things is that none of the anti-vaxx things ever stick. Like, their theories and other bullshit. In the last year+ all of that has been proven wrong and yet those people still believe the same bullshitters. I kinda do not understand how someone can believe a person in something that radical, when every single thing they have said, relating to that topic, has been complete trash and proven wrong.
Eh.
Boomeri
Life is suffering
Because two politicians are using them.
We don’t like any vaccine’s, that’s why
Lots of misinformation everywhere.
Also as there are quite a lot of people distrusting the government and vaccines, every populist politician wants their votes in the next election, adding oil to the fire. Now there are 5 or so political parties focused on antivax/anti establishment as their main platform. And doing everything they can to keep these people on edge, spreading misinformation, blaming the government on everything they can come up with, orchestrating protests. Every other place in the political spectrum is already pretty well saturated and divided among political parties, but the most prominent populist party from last elections shat itself pretty hard, and as the antivaxers are often the most gullible people, without some serious political affiliation, or with some anti establishment mindset, everybody wants a piece of the cake (votes). Even some long gone and pretty much universally disliked politicians like Šlesers suddenly crawled out of the swamp to create a new party and save everybody from the needle, as there is no chance for him to get elected in any other way.
And I think one more factor is that we never had very bad situation with Covid, compared to many other places in the world. Even our neighbors Lithuania had it way worse. Especially in the beginning, in 2020, when they were running out of body bags in Italy, we had like double digit numbers of cases per day, we were one of the least affected EU countries for a long time. So many don’t see Covid as something too serious.
Also it’s strange that in overall numbers we are not that far behind the rest of the Europe, but the situation with 60+ is very bad. Difficult to tell why. Maybe there is larger Russian influence, as older people pretty much all speak Russian and consume more Russian media. Or the vaccine roll out was not very well organised to get these people first, I remember it was pretty slow at first, and then suddenly we got lots of vaccines and it opened for everyone. Dunno.
I’m sure social media also plays a large role in this. Especially Facebook. These days if you open comments even for something completely unrelated to pandemic or vaccines, you can expect someone will be comparing vaccination to genocide there.
What do these numbers have to do with anti-vaxxers?
Because our old people lived under USSR propaganda 50+ years, and they know how to recognize Government Lies. They are not easy to be fooled.
But people over other side of Iron Curtain don`t have such experience, and that`s why it is so easy to trick them.
We a bit retarded ay
Many cases were women experience vaccination very heavily(heavy cramping, shivering, high temperature) There are reasons for bad reputation of covid vaccines.
If you take yellow fever vaccine, you most likely will not experience any side effects. No one complains about that vaccine. Covid vaccine, however, sometimes causes problems. Why like this? Why would I enjoy and happily go and take that vaccine? Especially for women. Also I know people who got sick after vaccination with covid. How do you like that? Also I have seen woman suffer from that vaccine for 2 days. Was it hallucination of mine?
All those bio companies needs to do is reduce side effects. People are not stubborn… but they want to delay the possibility of these consequences. Who wants to shiver wildly and be unable to walk just because of vaccine?
I am annoyed with people who think Russians are guilty again with the fact that Riga is still not vaccinated fully… I am also annoyed that Latvians take this vaccination personally… as if they are superior and super smart, but those who do not want to take vaccine are enemies of the country and very stupid.
Btw… I did not have the choice not to take it. Already vaccinated…
A lot of propaganda from every Russian source. Low intellect in people. Distrust in government. And lack of basic logic. And an unwillingness to be wrong about anything. Let to a situation now where the goverment is trying to force it and people due to principle refuseing