Recent polling by the E.U. agency Eurofound suggests that only 33% of Bulgarians intend to get vaccinated against Covid. The vaccine roll-out there is so slow that doses are nearing their expiry dates. In an attempt to pick up the pace, the Bulgarian Government is considering offering vouchers and other incentives to those who get vaccinated. Reuters has the story.
Only 14.5% of Bulgarian adults are fully vaccinated, putting the country far behind its E.U. peers.
On top of a general mistrust of authorities in the former communist country, Bulgarians often cite a fear of new medical products as their reason for refusing the vaccination. Another reason is that about 400,000 people have already been infected and developed resistance.
“We do not plan to force anyone. But we are considering the possibility to offer people who are getting the second shot some vouchers,” [Prime Minister Stefan] Yanev said.
Sofia has opened special vaccination units in parks to make it easier for busy people to get a shot and is planning campaigns in Roma neighbourhoods to try to convince those communities of the benefits of the vaccines.
Failure to boost vaccine uptake may force the country to destroy shots that are nearing their expiration dates.
Yanev said Bulgaria may face such a risk at the end of August and was working with Brussels to see how it may also donate some 150,000 shots to western Balkan countries.
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My wife and I have been considering Bulgaria as a possible new home for a while. The reason? Because it is never in the news. Now it is, and for the right reasons – the vast majority of Bulgarians are sceptical.
And it’s high time we also realised that totalitarian governments are not to be trusted.
Spot the difference on this occasion. Bulgarians are bribed with vouchers. Brits are threatened, bullied and exposed to obloquy from the zombie majority.
Exactly right Annie… why would any nation incentivise its citizenry for leaky SARS Cov 2 vaxxings that don’t do anything medically useful… why would any responsible Govt do that?
Care home in Belgium:
119 residents
113 – 95% vaccinated
55 infected with Covid19
12 Covid deaths
Draw your conclusions?
https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/175055/delta-variant-ravages-care-home-55-infected-12-dead/
MSM Jornolist surprised that offering incentives for risky jabs does not encourage people to engage in risky jabs!
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-lottery-based-incentives-covid-vaccination.html
Lottery-based incentives do not increase COVID-19 vaccination rates: study
There is a concept in economics called “fungibility”. Two things are said to be “fungible” is they can interchanged between people; like, I might have an apple and you have an orange, and we agree to swap them.On the other had, I might have an apple and you have a Ferrari; will you swap it for my apple (hint: the answer is almost certainly no). It also applies if I have some money and I am deciding whether to buy an apple or an orange. The thing is, health is the least fungible thing of all. If I have a health problem, then resolving that health problem is almost certainly more important than anything else; and similarly, if I have the opportunity to exchange my good health (or risk it) for some payment, then I am not going to do it for almost any payment. It doesn’t even matter whether I am risking my health; I just have to believe that I might be risking it. So it really should be no surprise that incentives like these don’t work. They might cause a group of people who intend to get vaccinated to come forward sooner, but it won’t incentivise the… Read more »
Also doesn’t it seem to rather remind people there’s some risk involved in being jabbed, which will reinforce jab avoidant behaviour.
Quite possibly: “If it was worthwhile, they’d not need to pay me”.
If Arthur Daley tries to sell you a dodgy motor, and throws in a few fags and whiskey as an incentive, you still know you’re getting a dodgy motor!
It’s all a big cycle. Eastern Europeans have dealt with decades of lying bureaucratic ideologues corrupt and often brutal. That has run its course and they retain their cold hard view of governments as well as collectivist call.
Meanwhile Western European’s have lost their edge, forgotten how we got here, trust our government and media and have no idea what money or debt is. We are surrounded by a majority of gullible fools who think they know everything, yet know nothing and are easy to intimidate, trick, lie to, and be molded into conformist slaves.
Precisely.
Hopefully the Bulgarian government is giving vouchers for private health care to help treat those that suffer adverse reactions?
As AYM notes, many from the former Eastern Europe or who have lived under communism are culturally vaccinated against govt telling people its for their own good.
70+ years of govt treating the people as disposable and lying to them day In & out forms a cultural impression.
No one from the current shower seems to have considered the long term consequences of placing western govts in the “liars not to be trusted” camp
Pretty damn smart, those Bulgarians!
Interesting to compare the shape of the cases/mortality curves between Bulgaria falling from the mid-April peak, and the UK falling from the mid-January peak. Portugal is similar, a sharp fall from late-January which was well before significant vaccination levels. They look pretty much the same to me, which raises the question: did the vaccines really contribute to the fall in the UK in any significant way?
It’s my personal opinion that the vaccines contributed to the increase in infections and deaths just after the vaccine rollout.
Agreed. India is a really interesting case. Vaccine roll out coincided with rise in deaths and cases.
This is a text in German summarizing an article on the various incentives around the world: Greece voucher on smartphone; US lotteries, joints; India golden nose stickers; The last sentence is the aptly formulated verdict of the editor of this site: “A tough to sell product shall be sold by all means. These vaxx campaigns have nothing in common anymore with vaccination being an informed decision. They are just government organised blackmail and dumbing down campaigns.” T-Online: Kampagne stockt – So wollen Parteien die Impflust steigern – Auszug: „Andere Länder lassen sich Anreizsysteme bereits einiges kosten. Griechenland hat gerade speziell für die junge Bevölkerung zwischen 18 und 25 Belohnungen ausgelobt: Wer eine Erstimpfung nachweist, dem wird ein Guthaben von 150 Euro auf sein Smartphone überwiesen. (…) In manchen Regionen der USA ist die Impfskepsis stark ausgeprägt, mehrere Staaten werben inzwischen mit großen Impflotterien. In Ohio können Geimpfte eine Million, in Kalifornien 1,5 Millionen und in New York sogar fünf Millionen US-Dollar gewinnen. (…) New Yorker Aktivisten verteilten im April kostenlose Joints an Corona-Geimpfte. (…) In der indischen Stadt Rajkot erhielten bei einer Aktion der Goldschmiede-Branche Hunderte Frauen, die sich impfen ließen, goldene Nasenstecker. An Männer wurden Stabmixer verteilt. (…) Wien… Read more »
USA – free doughnut every day for a year; free McDonald’s whopper – with free crinkly fries; free beer; free hotdog;
Crazy.
Sensible Bulgars!
You think that’s bad? Take a look at Slovakia…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/slovaks-start-lottery-offer-bonuses-115122297.html
Weekly lotteries up to €2m and more importantly cash payments for members of the public who successfully coerce others to get “vaccinated”! Payments range from €30 to €90 dependent upon age of the victim. So you can imagine an industry of scumbags now going door-to-door. Also it has pissed off many of the existing lab-rats who missed out on claiming payments. No matter how bad our scumbag politician puppets are, there is always somewhere worse.
My partner is Slovak and I doubt we will ever return to that oppressive Country.We have opted to remain on this rotten Island.
Oh no, I hope Johnson doesn’t see the poll. He’ll be rushing to buy the soon-to-be expired dodgy content vials, same as he did with similar from Israel. After all, it’s not his money he’s wasting, is it? Just pile more c**p and abuse on the taxpayers.
When governments start coming up with gimmicks like this you just know that they are failing to convince people to have the jab.
I’m not really sure if this is the right place to say this. My partner has just had the Pfizer jab, he already has a heart condition and I’m extremely worried the jab will worsen his condition. I did ask him to wait as I’d seen the reports in the US and Israel about myocarditis. Not only that, two very close friends have recently had blood clots after their AZ jabs (one fatal). I am absolutely petrified I will loose him eventually too. He reassures me he’ll be fine and I’m just worried because of what has happened with my friends. But I can’t help thinking the worst. I’m also worried about shedding and reports in the US that it’s causing unexpected vaginal bleeding in females that have been in close contact with the jabbed. I suppose I’m just looking for some reassurance really.
Please remember that millions of people have had the vaxx, including my own friends and family, with no apparent problems. It’s no good worrying about what might or might not happen in the future and forget to actually live now. Make sure you help your partner eat well, maybe take some vitamin D and C or at least eat more foods containing those vitamins. Get plenty of exercise and sleep, all the stuff that goes with a healthy lifestyle. You will be OK. You are absolutely in the right place, keep reading and commenting it helps to keep us all sane! Good luck.
Aspirin is a wonder drug for all sorts of reasons.
It shouldn’t hurt to take some.
Bulgaria, Finland, Croatia, Denmark, Romania, France Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, to name a few, all dawdling under 25% vaxxed. How can the EU have an effective covid/vaccine/travel pass if people just refuse to be vaxilated? Is pressure being brought to bear to ‘make’ countries catch up to Germany perhaps?
Hard for the EU to take the lead and look like ‘world leaders’ if they can’t even get their own people to take the therapy and if the plebs won’t capitulate, and do as they’re told.
U.K. will lead on VaxPass. The Lying Media will tell us we’re behind & to take our shots.
In May 2020, Johnson promised a ‘world beating’ system to test, track and trace people. He lied yet again when he inferred it was about a virus.
I don’t doubt that you are right. I just hope that uptake slows even further as more countries ease restrictions.
Looks like Bulgaria wil be one of the most healthy nations on earth, as they are rightly sceptical of the uneeded and dangerous mRNA gene therapy shots. This scpticism is likely from their recent experience of totalitarian communism. We in the UK are only now experiencing Comminism’s twin brother, Fascism
I have seen a number of things like this over the last few days. From McDonald’s in California giving a free item off the menu to those who get vaccinated to the Mayor of Moscow saying those who get the jab will be entered into a raffle to win a car to multiple prisons across America offering different incentives and rewards to inmates who get the vaccine. Surely though any type of incentive or reward is an inducement and therefore to offer any kind of incentive denies a person from being able to give informed consent since it states that – Consent must be given voluntarily and freely. Information should be relevant to the individual patient, covering benefits and risks, with questions answered fully and no inducement or coercion – the very definition of inducement is – a thing that persuades or leads someone to do something.