Russia’s pandemic/political update: going with the flow
After a steady decline in early 2021, Russia’s daily infection cases descended in mid-March to below 10K, but there has been little progress since then. Daily cases have been hovering mostly between 8K and 9K, albeit occasionally exceeding the lower and the upper boundary of this band. It was a stark contrast to many countries of the Northern hemisphere, where the daily infections rate has continued to fall amid growing demand for vaccination. In Russia, vaccination was and remains very slow, and people are quite skeptical not only about the Russian-made vaccines, but also about the virus itself, which is a stark contrast to the behavior of the majority of the European population.
The stability of the daily incidence rate observed in the previous months is not a very good sign as amid better weather and longer days one could have expected at least some naturally caused decline in daily infections. If this kind of stability persists in the summer and the vaccination rate remains as slow as it is now, then it cannot be ruled out that Russia may face another phase of rising COVID-19 incidence rates in autumn, especially if there are more strains of virus circulating.
Not only did the epidemiological situation remain unchanged in May, socio-political trends did, as well. This kind of muddling through is expected to continue for the time being as the entire system does not want any change. Unhurried muddling through and the preservation of the status quo is what currently suits both the ruling elite and the country’s population.
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