Poll shows that Serbians are a unique nation in Europe in their attitude toward coronavirus

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Stada Group has published the results of the second international survey conducted in 12 countries (including Serbia) with more than 24,000 respondents.

Although the survey covered several topics, one of those that has caused a lot of discussion across the continent is the possibility of mandatory vaccination.

The survey showed that a total of 82% of Europeans support this idea and that the number of supporters in all countries clearly exceeds the skeptics.

When it comes to the attitude of Serbian citizens about vaccination, 78 percent of Serbians support mandatory vaccination, which is slightly less than the general average of 82 percent in all 12 European countries, which puts Serbia in ninth place in terms responding positively to this question, ahead of Russia, Austria, and Switzerland.

Serbians are also below average in terms of knowing against which diseases they can be vaccinated. However, Serbian citizens are among the nations that are least likely to mistakenly believe that there is an AIDS vaccine - only 4 percent thought so, compared to 6 percent overall in the poll.

What do we think about coronavirus vaccine?

In a survey dedicated to coronavirus that Stada conducted after the general part of the poll, 42 percent of respondents expressed concern about the lack of a vaccine against this virus. By comparison, 50 percent of respondents fear that their loved ones will become infected with the virus and die.

Photo: Tanjug/AP

When it comes to Serbians, they showed a certain fearlessness, as the authors of the study called it: one in six respondents said they did not worry about the pandemic at all, while compared to Italy and Russia, only 27 percent of respondents in Serbia said they were worried about economic consequences and job loss.

Doctor Tiodorovic talks about coronavirus vaccine

Speaking about a possible vaccine against coronavirus, epidemiologist Dr. Branislav Tiodorovic told Objektiv that he estimates about 350,000 to 400,000 people will be vaccinated in Serbia.

"The vaccine will be mandatory for chronic patients (cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrine-diabetic, as well as all with those with reduced immunity - for example, oncology patients), people over 65, due to a natural decline in immunity, health workers, because they must be protected in order to treat others. Similar to indications for influenza vaccination. About 350,000-400,000 people will be vaccinated, which corresponds to the previously listed categories," the epidemiologist said and stressed that Serbia will never force anybody to get vaccinated.

(T.T./Telegraf.rs)