{"id":30460,"date":"2021-11-04T09:59:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T09:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=30460"},"modified":"2021-11-17T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T14:26:41","slug":"the-anti-vaccination-campaign-was-presented-as-a-struggle-for-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/verified\/2021\/11\/04\/30460\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anti-Vaccination Campaign Was Presented As A Struggle For Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

On August 20, the Minister of Health signed an order, according to which a negative result of the coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate must be submitted when going to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

This new restriction was due to an increase in the rate of coronavirus infection and an extremely slow vaccination rate: If in neighboring countries 25-60% of the population had been vaccinated, in Armenia that figure was below 10%.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new government decision came into force on October 1 and it did contribute to the increase in the number of vaccinations\u2024 The figure for August more than <\/span>tripled to 562,000<\/span><\/a> in two months.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, with an increase in the number of vaccines, the anti-vaccination campaign became more active. Politicians and activists launched an anti-vaccine campaign, presenting the new decision as a form of coercion and insisting that there needed to be a fight for free will.<\/span><\/p>\n

The media communicated this political campaign to the public without fact-checking – simply repeating what the politicians were saying.<\/span><\/p>\n

The epidemic is a political issue<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The coronavirus is a political issue in Armenia. It is perceived not only as a problem in the field of healthcare but also as a political tool. For the government, it became an opportunity to advertise its own work, for the opposition, a tool to weaken the positions of the government.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic in Armenia became politicized from day one when Nikol Pashinyan personally announced the first positive test in the country and started a series of live Facebook broadcasts, during which he informed the citizens about the number of positive cases and the measures taken. During the lockdown, Pashinyan always stayed in touch with the public via his Facebook lives. <\/span>He urged<\/span><\/a> people to send videos of<\/span> quarantine violations and posted them on his Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>\n

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