Ministry of Health shifts responsibility to UOC for low vaccination level

Alexander Daniliuk, head of the expert group of the Ministry of Health. Photo: screenshot / YouTube / Doctor Bulavinova

The level of vaccination against coronavirus in Ukraine depends on the efficiency of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said Alexander Daniliuk, the head of the expert group of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on the provision of emergency medical care in an interview with Yekaterina Bulavinova, infectious disease doctor and medical expert of the UNICEF Children's Fund, published on her YouTube channel.

The interview was also broadcast on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Asked by Bulavinova about factors that affect the desire of Ukrainians to be vaccinated, Daniliuk spoke about the prayer standing of the UOC believers near the Verkhovna Rada.

“When I was going to the live production right next to the Verkhovna Rada, the religious organization of the aggressor country brought people out that one should not be vaccinated, and so on,” said the employee of the Ministry of Health (the spokesman's original style is preserved – Ed.).

Daniliuk called the UOC "almost a pseudo-religious structure" and said that its network exists throughout the country.

“Where there is the least amount of vaccinations, they are the most active,” he said. "Even their leaders are from there."

The Ministry of Health official did not specify who he means by "leaders". His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry is from the Chernivtsi region, which is not the last in terms of vaccination. At the same time, Daniliuk was born, studied and worked before Euromaidan in the Transcarpathian region, which is at the bottom of the list in terms of the percentage of vaccinated, behind only the problematic Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Daniliuk also announced that the low level of vaccination in the cities is due to the “fake information in the media”, disseminated in the “absolute majority” by the Russian-language media. “This all comes from the East,” the official concluded.

As reported by the UOJ, the Volyn Regional State Administration announced that only vaccinated people would be able to visit the temple in the “red zone”.

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