New "Doctors' Plot": What Will the Campaign to Identify Opponents of Vaccinations Lead to?

Roszdravnadzor is acting on behalf of the Ministry of Health, which is seeking to tighten the policy on anti-vaccination.

The decision to involve the security forces in the case was made at a meeting of the operational headquarters to counter COVID-19. That is, in fact, Roszdravnadzor announced a hunt for doctors who express doubts about the need for mandatory and universal vaccination against coronavirus. They are offered to be prosecuted under Article 207 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for huge fines and imprisonment for up to five years. This news did not go unnoticed in the expert community.

For example, the leader of the New People party, Alexey Nechayev, reminds in his channel that no clear criteria have yet been established as to which information about vaccination is true and which is false. Then by what principle are the authorities going to identify saboteurs?

“The benefits of universal vaccination are not clear. Israel, the United Kingdom, Mongolia, Singapore and several other countries have achieved high vaccination rates but continue to face covid outbreaks. All existing vaccines are legally experimental, since the full post-marketing cycle of their trials has not been completed.

Pressure on doctors for a position that differs from the general line of propaganda is contrary to science and common sense. In conditions where many questions have no answers, they can be avoided only by taking into account all points of view. Scientific discussion needs to be broadened and encouraged. Not to declare a witch hunt.

The state should now especially carefully listen to different opinions and discuss, among other things, alternative strategies to combat the coronavirus. It is impossible to persecute dissidents, no matter what good purposes it may be justified..."

Political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov even called this initiative a new "case of doctors", which ordinary people can fall under:

“Roszdravnadzor instructed employees to knock about anti-vaccinations in the prosecutor's office and the TFR, especially among doctors and other health workers. The transfer of information should be reported within three days. The maximum penalty for spreading false information about vaccinations is from three to five years in prison.

But if someone thinks that they will only come for doctors, they are mistaken. Those who forged the vaccination certificate will be prosecuted under Articles 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is from 2 to 5 years in prison. Here we are talking not only about doctors, but also about those who bought and use a certificate to receive a QR-code.

The approach of Roszdravnadzor may lead to a final split between covid-hysterics (advocating strict segregation into “vaccinated” and not) and covid-skeptics, who believe that there is too much speculation around the virus and the situation requires deconstruction for a more detailed study. The past "lockdown" showed that all these methods do not work, as well as total vaccination has not yet proven its worth. And the mentoring approach: “we said - you did” irritates the public more and more, since no one is responsible for the failures and senseless tightening of the screws either. Not to mention the obvious politicization of the topic, when the number of infections decreases before the elections and immediately increases afterwards. So statistics will soon finally cease to be trusted, which will finally destroy the last confidence in the institutions of power and their derivatives..."

Political scientist Roman Alekhin is not inclined to believe that such a campaign will really start, and believes that talking about it is a test of the reaction of society:

“It seems to me that now officials of the Ministry of Health are straining their brains to find a way out of the information explosion created by this letter. And in the coming days or immediately after the holidays, a statement will appear that everyone misunderstood the head of Roszdravnadzor and meant... what was meant, we learn from the mouths of officials.This was already with the ban on doctors to discuss COVID-19, when the Ministry of Health had to make excuses for the order issued by them, explaining that only their subordinate institutions were meant.

Has the strategy of promoting vaccination really transformed into criminalizing people who openly oppose vaccination?

If this is so, then this can only indicate that the authorities are cornered by defeats on the fields of propaganda, and today's PR specialists and marketers cannot offer any more ideas for changing the situation. And the socially and technologically weak government, which cannot form the confidence of the population, is forced to act only with punitive methods and methods of isolating the situation in order to take a breath and be able to wait until it may dissolve by itself. This is how officials act in a pandemic - they do not set up work on social distancing and sanitary protection, with strict control over the implementation of the rules, but close shops, schools, gardens, etc. At the same time, during the closings, in fact, nothing is done to correct the situation, but the standby mode for the self-dissolution of the problem is simply turned on.

However, I still do not want to believe that such a letter from Roszdravnadzor has been approved by senior officials of the Ministry of Health, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office or the Presidential Administration, which should be understood by itself by an official who comes out with such an initiative. It is very doubtful, although possible, since - why not the Ministry of Health, but Roszdravnadzor? Perhaps the point is that the reaction of society is tested (although it should be clear at the start), and if something goes wrong, it is easier to dismiss the head of the service than the whole minister. But, nevertheless, it is doubtful. I am betting on the very difference that Dmitry Medvedev spoke about - while the AP strategists are looking for ways to persuade, someone under the pressure of problems could not stand it and freaked out".