“Romania has probably one of the most militarised vaccine campaigns,” noting that the online platform used for vaccine registration is “administered by one of our numerous intelligence services, the Special Transmission Service.” – Sorin Ionita, a policy analyst at the Expert Forum think tank, June 2019

Romania’s vaccination story is a tale of two countries, the decline of one vaccination regime and the rise of another.  A timeline of events is revealing.  It seems while Romania’s vaccination programme was falling apart, Ireland was taking advantage and its vaccination programme was gaining more momentum.  We pick up the media’s version of events – in their own words [excepting comments in square brackets and social media posts] – with a Euronews article dated 8 June 2021.

8 June, Euronews

Romania started its coronavirus vaccination campaign faster and stronger than its richer neighbours. Since launching its inoculation drive in late December, Romania has injected over 8 million vaccine doses to its population of more than 19 million.  But in recent weeks, the number of administered daily vaccine doses in the eastern European nation has declined.  Why did Romania’s vaccination campaign derail after such a good start?

Euronews explores the reasons behind the vaccine slowdown [which read more like a cover for stories they’re trying not to report]:

• “The Romanian government prioritised full vaccination,” over massively injecting first doses.
• “The problem is that Romania has the largest percentage of people leaving in rural areas in the EU, so it’s around 44% … there are not enough vaccination centres in rural areas”
• The lack of medical infrastructure and personnel, especially in rural areas, has plagued the country’s vaccination campaign.
• The country has had no less than four different ministers of health since the pandemic began. In the latest episode, one factor in the sacking was because the minister “crossed the military guys.  It was a very bizarre episode anyway, which tells you who calls the shots.”
• “Politicians were too present” in promoting the country’s vaccination campaign, politicians are not really trusted by the population.
• “The safety signal triggered by AstraZeneca had a major impact on the vaccination campaign, as it has considerably reduced the population’s trust in the safety of using this vaccine in particular and somehow this affected the credibility of the other approved vaccines.”
• The mass media was sending “mixed messages” about coronavirus vaccination, fuelling vaccine hesitancy in the country.
• The Romanian Orthodox Church wasn’t fairly supportive of the vaccination campaign.

3 July, The Times

Micheál Martin, the [Irish] taoiseach, yesterday agreed a deal in principle with Klaus Iohannis, the president of Romania, to buy one million surplus vaccines, which are understood to be Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Romania has one of the lowest rates of vaccine uptake in Europe. A spokeswoman for the taoiseach said the process was “yet to be completed”.

7 July, Times of India

Declining demand for coronavirus vaccinations in Romania has prompted authorities to close 117 vaccination centres and to reduce the schedule at 371 others. The number of daily vaccinations in Romania has consistently dropped from a mid-May peak.  Just 24% of people in Romania have been fully vaccinated.

3 August, The Irish News

The Republic of Ireland has completed a deal to purchase 700,000 Covid-19 vaccines from Romania, the Taoiseach has announced. It was announced in July that an agreement had been reached in principle for the purchase of one million mRNA vaccines from Romania, 700,000 Pfizer jabs and 300,000 Moderna.  Today’s announcement relates to the batch of Pfizer vaccines.

The Republic of Ireland has administered more than two million Covid-19 jabs in six weeks and “around 73% of adults are now fully vaccinated while 87% have received a first dose.”

Mr Martin said: “As deliveries [from Romania] arrive this month, they will be used to meet the continued high uptake of our Covid vaccines.  These new Pfizer vaccines will ensure supply as we continue the next phases of the rollout over the summer and autumn months.  I want to thank Romania and the EU for their assistance and show of solidarity to Ireland as we further protect our citizens in this pandemic.”

5 August, EU Observer

In Romania, some 25 percent of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine, two months behind deadline, while Bulgaria fares even worse, with just 17 percent of its population vaccinated.  Romania and Bulgaria are both looking for opportunities to sell their excess vaccines which they are not able to administer to their own population. 

Bulgaria is also donating its unused vaccines mainly to neighbouring western Balkan countries.

The Danish minister of health, Magnus Heunicke explained that Romania wanted to sell surplus doses because demand for vaccines among its population is low.  As vaccination numbers drop, Romanian authorities have donated nearly half a million vaccines to the neighbouring Moldova, as well to Serbia and Ukraine.  Last month president Klaus Iohannis also announced that Romania will make a donation of 100K doses of vaccines to Vietnam.

To avoid unused stocks of vaccines from hitting expiration date, Romania recently secured a deal with Ireland.

17 August, G4Media

The last of the four vaccination centres opened here in Brașov has also been closed.  The last centre, the one for the Home for the Elderly, was closed on August 15.  The inhabitants of Brasov can be vaccinated at 53 family doctors, at several private clinics and at the “Regina Maria” Military Emergency Hospital.

18 August, Romania-Insider

With an average of 0.06 doses of vaccine administered per 100 inhabitants in the last seven days, Romania was last in the EU on August 16, according to VaccinationEU data quoted by Hotnews.ro.

Romania has sold vaccines to Denmark and other EU countries in recent months because Romanian citizens are not interested in getting vaccinated while other EU countries don’t have enough vaccines for everyone.

Romania is now second to last in the EU for the share of adults vaccinated with at least one dose, with 32.1%, ahead only of Bulgaria (20.5%), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker. The EU-wide percentage of vaccinated adults is 73.8%.

20 August, World-Signal News

The people in Romania for the moment win the battle against the system’s depopulation by vaccination program.  The government has started closing all vaccination centres. 70% of the population refuses to get vaccinated and all coercive measures have failed.  Currently, the situation in Romania is much freer than in Western Europe.  Interestingly, the second wave of Covid-19-infected was significantly weaker than the first.

[Alliance for Romanians’ Unity (AUR), a conservative and nationalist political party established on December 1, 2019, which took 9% of the votes in parliamentary elections in December 2020.  In just three months, the party jumped from 36,000 votes taken in the elections for the local councils to almost 530,000 votes in the elections for the Parliament. On 8 December 2020, 15,000 Romanians joined the party in just 24 hours.  Some tweets about AUR may reveal one reason for their rapid gains.]

20 August, Digi24

The administration of the third dose of vaccine against COVID-19 would start in Romania at the latest in early October, says Doctor Valeriu Gheorghiță, the coordinator of the vaccination campaign.  “We are waiting for a recommendation for those who made the first vaccine scheme with viral vector, most likely those who made the first scheme with AstraZeneca will receive a vaccine based on messenger RNA at the third dose,” said Gheorghiță.

[Dr. Martin de Brun tweets that Ireland stopped administering Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca injections]

22 August, G. Edward Griffins Need to Know

Romanians and Bulgarians reject Covid shots and sell off surplus.  The Romanian government sold 700,000 of the Covid shots to Ireland and 1.1-million doses of Pfizer to Denmark.

23 August, Romania-Insider

In total, more than 9.66 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Romania by August 22 to over 5.18 million people (of which 5.05 million were fully vaccinated). [With a population of more than 19 million, approximately 27% of the population had received at least one dose.]

24 August, Reaction

“Destinations from Austria to Romania are already accepting evidence of active immunity from spike antibodies as an alternative to vaccination.”

[As we have witnessed more and more over the past 18 months, what the “official narrative” says isn’t always what is happening on the ground, and you can tell from their pitch which reports are made by “state-controlled media.” Sadly, as the twitter user below points out, the victory is not yet complete.  So, maybe we can claim it as a 99% victory?]

[Ireland’s vaccination regime, on the other hand, is steaming ahead.  As of 24 August, Ireland, with a population of over 5 million, had administered 6,641,944 doses and – while Romania is the second lowest, at 81.9, Ireland is the fifth highest, at 152.5, by number of vaccine doses distributed to EU countries per 100 inhabitants – the Taoiseach urges Ireland onward]: