As Ukraine’s COVID vaccination campaign proceeds slowly, a new poll showed that a little more than half of Ukrainians want no part of any vaccination, a reluctance long predating the pandemic and deeply rooted in Soviet practice.

The poll, conducted by the Razumkov centre, showed that 51.5 percent of respondents had no plans to accept the vaccine themselves as the number of infections and deaths rose sharply in Kyiv and in other regions, particularly in the west of the country.

Only 12 percent if those polled said they intended to seek a vaccination straight away and a further 16 percent said they would do so later.

Of those who said they would not get a vaccination, 27 percent said they viewed the risks of the vaccine as greater than those of COVID itself. Others cited medical conditions incompatible with the vaccine or said they had already suffered the effects of the virus.

Officials have said they are battling a deeply entrenched anti-vaccination mentality which is disrupting efforts to distribute and administer the Astra-Zeneca vaccine authorities have secured from India. Ukraine’s campaign to track down and secure the vaccines got off to a slow start, though the country has since reached tentative agreements to get COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Novavах, and China’s Sinovac Biotech.

The reluctance has long had calamitous consequences in Ukraine. In 2019, widespread resistance to standard vaccinations lay behind Europe’s worst outbreak of measles – a disease long brought under control in most of the industrialised world.

“Vaccinations are being blocked, probably at the local level,” infectious diseases specialist Olga Kobevko from western Chernivtsy region told ICTV television’s “Freedom of expression” programme.