Category Archives: Covid-19

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A multi-unit complex owned by Mirage Properties in the Shawnee neighborhood. May 3, 2021(Photo: Alton Strupp/Courier Journal)

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored housing disparities between Black and white peoplein Louisville, with Black residents more likely to face financial hardships that put them behind on rent,according to a reportfrom theMetropolitan Housing Coalition.

The nonprofit agency, made up of more than 300members, released its latest State of Metropolitan Housing Reporton Tuesday, breaking down the struggles residents faced as they attempted to stay "healthy at home" over the last year.

According to the report, Black residentswere more likely than white residents to experience layoffs, job losses and pay cuts through the pandemic, leading them to more often miss rent and utility payments.

Behind on rent?: How to get emergency assistance in Kentucky

People in predominantly Black areas were most likely to be evicted from their homes,despite moratoriums. And foreclosure sales in 2020 were concentrated in areas with larger populations of Black homeowners and renters, the report stated.

Government response to the pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn was "uneven, confusing and insufficient across the board," the report added. And as the city continues to recover, officials must intentionally direct resources to people who need them most, the coalition says.

"We know we had extreme disparities in our community in terms of access to safe and affordable housing, and this pandemic has just magnified that," said Cathy Kuhn, executive director of the coalition.

"So I think one of the takeaways from this report is that it's going to be very, very critical that we are strategic in utilizing the unprecedented funding that has been coming into the city to address those disparities and make sure we're targeting those resources to those who are most vulnerable, those who have the greatest level of need as it relates to housing."

Since the start of the pandemic, Louisville has directed about $31 million in local and federal funds toward rent and utility assistance.

The city got a big boost in eviction prevention funding in February when it received $22.9 million through the COVID-19 Relief Act. And it stands to receive millions more through theAmerican Rescue Plan Act funding that will be used to provide emergency rental assistance, utility assistance and housing vouchers.

Related: How Kentucky is pushing out more than $300M in rent assistance

Black residents made up nearly 72% of those who received rent assistance through the end of March, according to city data.

Census estimates show 64% of Black households rent their homes, compared to 31% of white households.

Kuhn, who joined the coalition in October, said emergency rent assistance is critical for keeping families housed in the short-term. But government officials also need to invest in the construction of affordable housing to increase options for low-income residents and improve their chances for resiliency in the face of future crisis, she said.

"I do think Louisville has done a lot to try to begin to address these issues, but obviously much more needs to be done," she said. "The recent budget put out by the mayor put a $10 million investment in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. That's basically level funding. That's just not going to do it.

"We need to re-prioritize and make more significant investments in affordable housing."

More: Want to build a tiny home or community garden? These zoning changes could make it easier

The coalition's state of housing report offers a range of recommendations on how the city can increase affordable housing and reduce disparities, including:

Legal representation for tenantsEstablishing a "right to counsel" program would help balance power dynamics that inherently favor the landlord in eviction proceedings, the report states. After the report was already drafted, Metro Council members approved a pilot program that will offer free legal representation to low-income families facing eviction.

Strengthen the rental registry City officials should create, maintain and enforcea rental registry that can ensure compliance with housing codes as well as prevent unlawful evictions.

Just cause eviction protections City officials should enact "just cause" eviction policies that wouldprovide greater protections for renters by limiting the grounds upon which a landlord may evict a tenant.

Eviction expungement State and local officials should enact laws that allow courts to order expungement of an eviction record. Many landlords will not rent to people who have an eviction filed against them, the report states.

Require affordable housing in new developments Louisville's Land Development Code should require the development of affordable housing as a condition to the development of market-rate housing. City officials are working to revise the code in three phases that are expected to take up to two years.

Build public and affordable housing Local, state and federal governments should commit to making meaningful investments in the production of housing dedicated to people with the lowest incomes. At the state level, officials should establish a state affordable housing tax credit, and at the city level, officials should increase funding for existing programs and agencies, such as the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Background: Housing disparities run deep for Black Louisville residents

Make home ownership more affordable Private and public entities should support programs that help low-income families overcome wealth barriers and keep monthly mortgage payments low.

Support community land trusts Community land trusts provide meaningful opportunities for low-income people to build equity through homeownership, while also allowing communities to retain control of the properties. Louisville announced plans to establish a community land trust in two predominantly Black neighborhoods earlier this year.

Focus interventions through a racial equity framework Public and private entities should intentionally focus their housing intervention efforts around reducing racial and ethnic disparities.

To read the full report, visitmetropolitanhousing.org/annual-reports.

Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore atbloosemore@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4646 or on Twitter @bloosemore.Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: https://www.courier-journal.com/baileyl.

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How COVID-19 magnified the 'extreme disparities' in housing between Black, white residents - Courier Journal

An ongoing second wave of COVID-19 infections in India could hurt its near-term economic recovery and possibly diminish growth for the full year, S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday.

"India's COVID wave will inevitably hit the recovery and could push growth below 10%," said Shaun Roache, chief economist, Asia Pacific at S&P.

"The longer it takes to regain control, the greater the permanent damage, especially as policy space is limited."

With 3.45 million active cases, India recorded 357,229 new infections over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose 3,449 for a toll of 222,408, health ministry data showed. Experts say actual numbers could be five to 10 times higher. read more

S&P currently has a "BBB-" rating on India with a stable outlook, the lowest investment grade and expects India's economy to grow 11% in the year that started April 1 following a projected record contraction of 8% in the previous year.

"The shock of the first quarter is likely to carry on through the rest of the year and the impact on the GDP could be around one to three percentage points," Roche said.

The rating agency said India had been showing strong recovery momentum since September last year and until March/April of 2021 before the massive surge in cases prompted localised lockdowns and mobility restrictions.

"There will be some near-term ramifications at least...from the severe second wave of COVID-19 that we are observing. But India still has good recovery prospects over the next 3-4 years but that may be slower," Andrew Wood, director, sovereign & international public finance ratings.

He said that the agency expects India to see the best growth prospects over the medium to longer-term, relative to other regional peers at similar development levels.

"We still believe that India's fiscal settings are going to be weak... deficits are going to be high for a long time," Woods said.

India's general government fiscal deficit is seen at around 11% of GDP this year against 14% last year, Wood said.

"A continuation of its recovery once the current epidemic wave eases will be critical to stabilizing the government's fiscal and debt metrics," he added.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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India's recovery to be hit by COVID-19 surge; fiscal metrics to remain weak-S&P - Reuters India

North Korea's state media warned on Tuesday of the prospect of a lengthy battle against the coronavirus, saying vaccines developed by global drugmakers were proving to be "no universal panacea".

The country has not officially confirmed any infections, although South Korean officials have said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out, as the North had trade and people-to-people links with China before shutting its border early last year.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, said the pandemic was only worsening, despite the development of vaccines.

"Novel coronavirus vaccines introduced competitively by various countries were once regarded as a glimmer of hope for humanity that could end the fight against this frightening disease," it added.

"But the situations in many countries are clearly proving that the vaccines are never a universal panacea," it said, citing news reports of rising numbers of new cases overseas and safety concerns.

It urged people to brace for a protracted pandemic, describing it as an "inevitable reality" that called for efforts to toughen anti-virus measures and foster loyalty to leader Kim Jong Un and his party.

North Korea was expected to receive nearly two million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine by the first half of this year, via the COVAX sharing programme. read more

But last month Edwin Salvador, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the North, said the shipment was delayed over supply shortages, citing the GAVI alliance, according to South Korean media.

In a comment to Reuters, Salvador said North Korea was completing technical requirements required to receive the vaccines, but did not elaborate.

The GAVI alliance, which co-leads COVAX with the WHO, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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N.Korea says COVID-19 vaccines are 'no panacea,' warns of lengthy battle - Reuters

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Getting a COVID-19 shot can be as easy as walking into some vaccination sites without an appointment, Kentuckys governor said Tuesday in his latest plea to boost inoculation rates.

More than 1.8 million Kentuckians have received at least one dose of vaccine, but the pace needs to pick up, especially among younger people, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

There are vaccination appointments available every week, at many different times throughout the day, he said. At some sites, you dont even need an appointment. Get it done, for yourself and for your community, so we can reach our goal and relax more restrictions.

Younger Kentuckians have lagged behind in getting vaccinated.

Data released Monday showed 27% of Kentucky residents between ages 18-29 had gotten the shots. The vaccination rate was 37% among Kentuckians ages 30-39 and 43% in the 40-49 age group, the data showed. Nearly 80% of people ages 65 and older were vaccinated.

Once 2.5 million Kentuckians receive at least their first COVID-19 shot, Beshear has pledged to lift capacity and physical distancing restrictions for nearly all businesses, venues and events catering to 1,000 or fewer patrons. The governor indicated Monday that he will consider relaxing more coronavirus-related restrictions before the state reaches that vaccination target.

The states inoculation rate slowed in recent weeks, and the Democratic governor has repeatedly pleaded with Kentuckians to take the shots to defeat the pandemic.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made another pitch Monday for Kentuckians to get vaccinated, saying: I want to encourage everybody: finish the job.

Anyone 16 or older is eligible to receive the vaccine in Kentucky.

Among Kentuckys 120 counties, the top five vaccination rates are in Woodford, Franklin, Fayette, Scott and Jefferson counties, the state said. The lowest vaccination rates are in Christian, Spencer, Ballard, McCreary and Lewis counties, it said.

The state reported 776 new coronavirus cases Tuesday and seven more virus-related deaths. At least 6,532 Kentuckians have died from COVID-19.

More than 430 virus patients are hospitalized in Kentucky, including 102 in intensive care units, the state said. The statewide rate of positive cases was 3.47%.

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Find APs full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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Beshear stresses convenience of getting COVID-19 vaccine - Associated Press

Unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics, which can be used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, drugs that work against one type of virus rarely work at treatingother viruses. For example, remdesivir, originally developed for treating hepatitis C, was at one point suggested as a treatment for Covid-19, but clinical trials have shown that it hasonly a limited effectagainst this coronavirus.

The reason there are few effective broad-spectrum antivirals is that viruses are much more diverse than bacteria, including in how they store their genetic information (some in the form of DNA and some as RNA). Unlike bacteria, viruses have fewer of their own protein building blocks that can be targeted with drugs.

For a drug to work, it has to reach its target. This is particularly difficult with viruses because they replicate inside human cells by hijacking our cellular machinery. The drug needs to get inside these infected cells and act on processes that are essential for the normal functioning of the human body. Unsurprisingly, this often results incollateral damageto human cells, experienced as side-effects.

Targeting viruses outside cells to stop them from gaining a foothold before they can replicate is possible, but is also difficult because of the nature of thevirus shell. The shell is extraordinarily robust, resisting the negative effects of the environment on the way to its host. Only when the virus reaches its target does its shell decompose or eject its contents, which contain its genetic information.

This process may be a weak spot in the virus lifecycle, but the conditions that control the release are very specific. While drugs targeting the virus shell sounds appealing, some may still betoxic to humans.

Despite these difficulties, drugs that treat viruses such as influenza and HIVhave been developed. Some of these drugs target the processes of viral replication and the viral shell assembly. Promising drug targets of coronaviruses have beenidentified as well. But developing new drugs takes a long time, and viruses mutate quickly. So even when a drug is developed, the ever-evolving virus might soon developresistance towards it.

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Why treating Covid-19 with drugs is harder than you think - BBC News

Recognizing May as National Mental Health Awareness Month is particularly important this year as the impacts on mental health from COVID-19 linger, raising awareness of mental health and its effect on the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.

The Board of Larimer County Commissioners today proclaimed May as National Mental Health Awareness Month in Larimer County.

"It is critical that we keep Mental Health at the forefront of our conversations. Talking about it is one of the best ways to reduce the stigma around it and encourage people to seek help before a crisis hits,"said Larimer County Director of Behavioral Health Services Laurie Stolen.

A study conducted by Mental Health America in 2020 highlights the connection between the pandemic and mental health. Key findings from the study show that the number of people looking for help with anxiety and depression has skyrocketed, more people are reporting frequent thoughts of suicide and self-harm, and young people are struggling the most with their mental health.

Mental Health America also collects state-by-state mental health data to create state rankings. The state rankings for 2020 show that 20% of Coloradans live with mental illness and that Colorado ranks 43rd out of 50 states with a higher prevalence of mental health issues and lower rates of access to care for adults.

We know that this issue touches all of us in our lives, and it is important for us to address this and reduce the stigma and see what we can do to raise awareness with our youth, said Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNally.

Larimer County continues to advance mental health initiatives to support the mental and behavioral wellbeing of county residents. In June, Behavioral Health Services will announce its annual behavioral health grant funding available to area organizations through the Impact Fund Grant Program. Meanwhile, work continues on the new behavioral health facility scheduled to open in early 2023, expanding the availability of acute behavioral health services to county residents.

Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in May in the United States since 1949 to educate communities about psychological disorders while reducing the stigma around mental health.

Do you need someone to talk to? Call the Connections Emotional Support Line: 1-970-221-5551. Support is available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

Are you or someone you know experiencing a mental health crisis? Call 1.844.493.TALK or text TALK to 38255.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month; impacts of COVID-19 on mental health (BOCC) - Larimer County

WASHINGTON (KTVZ) -- Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., issued a statement Monday calling on Governor Kate Brown to end the recently reinstituted COVID-19 restrictions.

Here's the statement, in full:

"In the normal course, as a United States Representative, I would not enter debates regarding state-level politics. However, the Governors most recent response to the COVID-19 situation is not only historically broad in impact, but an action that causes far more serious damage than benefit.Additionally, in recent days, the Oregon Health Authority actually invited public input from Oregons congressional delegation.

"Governor Kate Browns decision to again lock down huge parts of Oregon has caused incredible frustration for many in my district, and I share their frustration. In a recent letter by Governor Brown, she commended Oregonians for helping make our state among the lowest COVID-19 case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths in the nation, to which she gave creditinlarge part to the actions of Oregonians to take seriously the health and safety measures.

"And indeed,today, nearly 70 percent of Oregons older population is fully vaccinated and many communities across our state were well on their way to safely returning to some sort of normal. However, Governor Brown has now done completely the opposite of many other states: imposing yet another lockdown.

"Sadly, Governor Browns proposed $20 million safety net for those harmed by this most recent lockdown is woefully inadequate for those Oregon businesses struggling to survive. I believe Oregon must reopen and stay open.

"The reinstatement of the Governors shutdown solution will do more harm than good to our loved ones, communities, and our state especially as risk drops with an ever increasing number of Oregonians being vaccinated.I am calling upon Governor Brown to reverse this unfortunate decision and focus her attention instead on vaccinations and making sure that COVID aid sent to Oregon by the Federal Government be quickly allocated to those in need."

Meanwhile, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam, who's exploring a possible Republican run for governor, says a lawsuit is being filed in federal court against Gov. Kate Brown, on behalf of several businesses and a union.

Pulliam, who says it's time to end the restrictions, said the suit will challenge Brown's authority to extend the state of emergency by executive order

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Bentz urges Gov. Brown to lift renewed COVID-19 restrictions - KTVZ

The next generation of Covid-19 vaccines in development could come as a pill or a nasal spray and be easier to store and transport than the current handful of shots that form the backbone of the world-wide vaccination effort.

These newer vaccines, from U.S. government labs and companies including Sanofi SA, Altimmune Inc. and Gritstone Oncology Inc., also have the potential to provide longer-lasting immune responses and be more potent against newer and multiple viral variants, possibly helping to head off future pandemics, the companies say.

Vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S. from Pfizer Inc. and its partner BioNTech SE, as well as Moderna Inc., must be transported and stored at low temperatures and require two doses administered weeks apart.

New vaccines could constitute some improvement over those limitations and more easily accommodate vaccination efforts in rural areas, said Gregory Poland, professor and vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. You will see second-generation, third-generation vaccines, he said.

There are 277 Covid-19 vaccines in development globally, of which 93 have entered human testing, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the vaccines in clinical testing are injected, but there are two oral formulations and seven nasal-spray formulations.

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Next Generation of Covid-19 Vaccines Could Be Pill or Spray - The Wall Street Journal

A Covid-19 patient receiving oxygen support in a car in New Delhi at an "Oxygen langar," which ... [+] provides free oxygen during the coronavirus crisis.

As the COVID-19 crisis has exploded in India in recent weeks, the Twitter account of The Press Club of India has refashioned itself into an ad hoc publisher of obituaries for members of the profession.

The world has been increasingly watching in horror as something akin to a humanitarian crisis unfolds in the country, where the numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from the coronavirus mount at a staggering rate. The current surge in India has pushed the countrys number of total cases since the pandemic began to more than 19.5 million as of the time of this writing second only to the US, per researchers at Johns Hopkins University. More than 215,000 have died there, and the country is adding on average more than 3,000 Covid-19 deaths every day, though the presumption is that those totals vastly undercount the true reality. As if all this wasnt bad enough, not even 2% of Indias adult population of 940 million has been fully vaccinated, according to theOur World in Dataproject at the University of Oxford.

Every other day, we hear news of a members passing, Amrita Madhukalya, a member of the press clubs managing committee, told me. As part of the Twitter team, we know that the digital communication is important, especially since the Club is closed. Delhi is under lockdown right now.

As soon as we get to hear of someones passing, we try and source details of their lives and then their pictures. In most cases, colleagues always come forward to help. The point is that we do not miss key details, and we do not get it wrong. The club itself has more than 4,000 members journalists, and it is not uncommon to have days when the club tweets out multiple messages of condolence in memory of journalists whove died from Covid-19.

It is gutting to see young lives go away in the blink of an eye. There are members who leave behind young kids. A popular member was 41, and he leaves behind two young daughters. Another member, who was a key member of the Clubs managing committee over the years, left yesterday. He followed his wife, who had passed a day earlier. The couple leave behind a daughter.

While the surge there is being fueled partly by the spread of more virulent strains of Covid-19, Indias journalists told me that whats happening right now is the result of a perfect storm of tragedy and self-inflicted errors. Its a combination of low vaccination rates, hospitals running low on key supplies like oxygen, and wide swaths of the populace not being put under lockdown until its been too late, even as mass political rallies and unmasked political leaders have sent a message that a crisis is not at hand.

Dinakar Peri, a defense correspondent with the daily newspaper The Hindu, told me that the problem has been compounded by the supply of things like hospital beds, oxygen, ICU space, and life-saving therapeutics running dry. To the point that, in their desperation, people are often turning to journalists like him as a last resort, to help them find what they need. Filing stories is one thing, he told me, but we are spending so much time trying to find any leads to beds, oxygen, ICU, ambulances, medicines. People think journalists have contacts, so they reach out and ask if we can pull a connection. In (most) cases we try, but its no luck or help arrived too late. The person is no more.

I talked to a handful of journalists in the country in recent days, and while they gave me a just-the-facts summation of whats happening there, those details cannot hide the fact that a tragically high number of journalists themselves are also succumbing to Covid-19 while trying to document what the country is experiencing. And that reality is yet another piece of evidence revealing how badly the leadership at all levels is failing.

For example, a journalist in the northern India city of Lucknow named Vinay Srivastava recently contracted Covid-like symptoms. In his frustration at being unable to obtain medical care, he started tweeting at local officials and included his falling oxygen levels. He died a few weeks ago. He was one of more than 121 journalists in India whove died as a result of Covid-19, according to the Press Emblem Campaign, a media group based in Switzerland.

Others include Kakoli Bhattacharya, a 51-year-old news assistant forThe Guardian whodied in Delhi. The family of Rohitash Gupta, a 36-year-old reporter in the Indian city of Bareilly, said he died at home after being unable to securea hospital bed.

Peri told me that among the factors that allowed the virus to spread to this degree in India is many people not wearing masks in public. Call it fatigue or callousness, he said, unsure of whether people are simply fed up or if its more of a case of misinformation trickling down from the top. As far as the latter point, he does add that the leadership encouraged (this behavior) in many ways, rather than correcting it and definitely declared victory over corona too early.

Purva Chitnis, a correspondent for NDTV in Mumbai, told me in no uncertain terms that this has been the most difficult phase in my nearly 6-year journalism career. She told me about being haunted by the desperate cries of people for medicines and oxygen masks, as well as reporting from crematoriums and burial grounds.

Seeing the dead up close was heart-wrenching.To put it even personally, I myself, along with my family, got infected in March. I was anxious back then, but today I would like to thank my stars that my family got infected when resources were available. But just one month later, things exploded and how.

Many people are not getting the hospital care that they deserve ... Without getting political, as a journalist I feel the accountability for this has to be fixed. The approach to this was completely top-to-bottom. And in India, being a diverse nation, this approach failed completely."

More:

Heres What Indias Journalists Told Me About The Covid-19 Surge There - Forbes

MOSCOW -- While at the Park House shopping mall in northern Moscow, Vladimir Makarov saw it was offering the coronavirus vaccine to customers, so he asked how long it would take.

It turned out its simple here 10 minutes, he said of his experience last month.

But Makarov, like many Muscovites, still decided to put off getting the Sputnik V shot.

Russia boasted last year of being first in the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, but it now finds itself lagging in getting its population immunized. That has cast doubt on whether authorities will reach their ambitious goal of vaccinating more than 30 million of countrys 146 million people by mid-June and nearly 69 million by August.

The vaccine reluctance comes as shots are readily available in the capital to anyone 18 or older at more than 200 state and private clinics, shopping malls, food courts, hospitals even a theater.

As of mid-April, over 1 million of Moscow's 12.7 million residents, or about 8%, have received at least one shot, even though the campaign began in December.

That percentage is similar for Russia as a whole. Through April 27, only 12.1 million people have gotten at least one shot and only 7.7 million, or 5%, have been fully vaccinated. That puts Russia far behind the U.S., where 43% have gotten at least one shot, and the European Union with nearly 27%.

Data analyst Alexander Dragan, who tracks vaccinations across Russia, said last week the country was giving shots to 200,000-205,000 people a day. In order to hit the mid-June target, it needs to be nearly double that.

We need to start vaccinating 370,000 people a day, like, beginning tomorrow, Dragan told The Associated Press.

To boost demand, Moscow officials began offering coupons worth 1,000 rubles ($13) to those over 60 who get vaccinated not a small sum for those receiving monthly pensions of about 20,000 rubles ($260).

Still, it hasnt generated much enthusiasm. Some elderly Muscovites told AP it was difficult to register online for the coupons or find grocery stores that accepted them.

Other regions also are offering incentives. Authorities in Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska, promised seniors 2,000 rubles for getting vaccinated, while the neighboring Magadan region offered 1,000 rubles. A theater in St. Petersburg offered discounted tickets for those presenting a vaccination certificate.

Russia's lagging vaccination rates hinge on several factors, including supply. Russian drug makers have been slow to ramp up mass production, and there were shortages in March in many regions.

So far, only 28 million two-dose sets of all three vaccines available in Russia have been produced, with Sputnik V accounting for most of them, and only 17.4 million have been released into circulation after undergoing quality control.

Waiting lists for the shot remain long in places. In the Sverdlovsk region, the fifth most-populous in Russia, 178,000 people were on a wait list by mid-April, regional Deputy Health Minister Yekaterina Yutyaeva told AP.

On April 28, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are enough vaccines available in Russia, adding that demand was the defining factor in the countrys vaccination rate.

Another factor in Russians' reluctance over Sputnik V was the fact that it was rolled out even as large-scale testing to ensure its safety and efficacy was still ongoing. But a study published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet said the vaccine appeared safe and highly effective against COVID-19, according to a trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia.

A poll in February by Russias top independent pollster, the Levada Center, showed that only 30% of respondents were willing to get Sputnik V, one of three domestically produced vaccines available. The poll had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Dragan, the data analyst, says one possible explanation for the reluctance is the narrative from authorities that they have tamed the outbreak, even if that assessment might be premature.

With most virus restrictions lifted and government officials praising the Kremlin's pandemic response, few have motivation to get the shot, he said, citing an attitude of, If the outbreak is over, why would I get vaccinated?

Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, echoed Dragan's sentiment and also pointed to inconsistent signals from officials and media.

Russians in 2020 were bombarded with contradictory messages first about (the coronavirus) not being dangerous and being just a cold, then that it was a deadly infection," he told AP. Then they were banned from leaving their homes.

Another narrative, he said, was that foreign vaccines were dangerous but Russian-produced ones were not. State TV reported adverse reactions linked to Western vaccines while celebrating Sputnik Vs international success.

A proper media campaign promoting vaccinations didnt begin on state TV until late March, observers and news reports note. Videos on the Channel 1 national network featured celebrities and other public figures talking about their experience but didn't show them getting injected. President Vladimir Putin said he received the shot about the same time, but not on camera.

Fruitful ground for conspiracy theorists, said Dragan, who also works in marketing.

Rumors about the alleged dangers of vaccines actually surged on social media in December, when Russia began administering the shots, and have continued steadily since then, said social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.

The rumors combined with other factors the pseudoscience on Russian TV, vaccine distribution problems and an uneven rollout of the promotional campaign to hamper the immunization drive, Arkhipova told AP.

Vlassov, meanwhile, noted the outbreak in Russia is far from over, and there even are signs it is growing.

Roughly the same number of people get infected every day in Russia now as last May, at the peak of the outbreak," he said, adding that twice as many people are dying every day than a year ago.

Government statistics say infections have stayed at about 8,000-9,000 per day nationwide, with 300-400 deaths recorded daily. But new cases have been steadily increasing in Moscow in the past month, exceeding 3,000 last week for the first time since January.

Infection rates are growing in seven regions, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on April 23, without identifying them. She blamed insufficient vaccination rates in some places.

And yet, the abundance of vaccines in Moscow has attracted foreigners who can't get the shot at home. A group of Germans got their first jab at their hotel last month.

Uwe Keim, 46-year-old software developer from Stuttgart, told AP he believes there are more vaccines available here in Russia than is demanded by the people here.

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Kostya Manenkov and Anatoly Kozlov in Moscow and Yulia Alexeyeva in Yekaterinburg contributed.

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Russia lags behind others in its COVID-19 vaccination drive - ABC News