Romania and COVID, a case of mistrust perhaps.

Romania has a small population, at some 20 or so million humans. Some 30% are fully vaccinated against COVID 19. Today they reported 574 deaths. 528 of them were unvaccinated. 46 vaccinated but 43 of them were already very sick with other diseases. (source)

At this moment Romania has the second mortality rate in the world. (source)

Romania was one of the first tribes to start the vaccination campaign, and has more than enough vaccines for all of its population. Also, the vaccines are free for everyone.

Romania is also one of the most corrupted tribes in Europe, despite being one of the most religious tribes in Europe.

All of this may tell us two important facts:

1. Religion clearly doesn't make you a better or a smarter human.
2. Despite having access to free solutions (like a free vaccine), and a lot of information (data) to showcase that vaccines are safe, the mistrust in companies and governments is going to trump over there.

We cannot simply create a better society by enforcing rules and laws, and force people to do this or that. We cannot rely on laws the same way we cannot rely on religion to make a population more trustworthy and honest. And we can't simply explain to people how safe vaccines are (for example) when we know very well that companies and governments lie all the time.

Romanians are not less educated than Spaniards. At least we cannot say that when it comes to how vaccines work and how safe they are. And yet in Spain the vaccination rate is at about 80% and deaths at about 20 per day, with a population 2-3 times the one of Romania. In other words we can clearly see that the death rate is in direct relation to vaccines administration. "Fake news" works the best with a population of people who mistrust official sources of information such as governments.

It is a sad truth, but comes from a fucked up society. It is easy to accuse these people and call them primitive and uneducated, but very likely their hesitancy comes from mistrust not miseducation. #tromimg