Wellcome Global Monitor in 2018 showed people in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states were among the least likely in the world to believe vaccines in general are safe and effective -- before the pandemic.
People in these two regions were also the least likely in 2020 to be willing to take the coronavirus vaccine -- 43% on average said they would in Commonwealth of Independent States countries, and 46% would in non-EU-member countries in Europe.Many countries in these two regions -- including most of the Balkans -- and former Soviet states also dominate the list of places where people were the least willing to take a coronavirus vaccine if it were available at no cost.For example, less than half of Russians in 2018 who had heard of.