More than half of doctors supported anti-covid restrictions

Against the backdrop of an increase in the number of CORONAVIRUS infections, the majority of Russian doctors who took part in a survey in the Doctor's Handbook mobile application would support the return of anti-COVID restrictions.But more than 40% of doctors are against such measures.

More than half of the doctors surveyed in the Doctor's Directory mobile application (56.6%) support the idea of ​​returning sanitary and restrictive measures, similar to those introduced during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. RBC has the results of the survey.

43.4% of the surveyed doctors opposed the introduction of restrictions. Among the main reasons for the negative attitude of doctors to restrictions, respondents named the lack of resources for their real implementation (43%), the reduction of salaries for specialists who did not work with covid (17.4%), the lack of trust in the Ministry of HEALTH and the authorities (16.1%) and dissatisfaction with the “factor coercion” (12.1%).

Up-to-date data on coronavirus in RUSSIA and the world. Infographic Society

The survey, which was conducted from 10 to 16 August 2022, was attended by 1627 medical specialists. In total, more than 763 thousand medical workers from 85 regions of Russia are registered in the Doctor's Handbook mobile application, owned by Medical Information Solutions. The creators explain that a person without a medical education can also register in it, but he will not be able to access the doctor's tools, participation in research, etc. The user will violate application policy if they indicate that they are a DOCTOR without being one. The share of such participants is minimal and, according to the developers, does not affect the representativeness indicators.

At the same time, 84% of the doctors surveyed said that they had previously complied with all the introduced covid restrictions, and 88.7% of the doctors recommended that their patients observe them. The fact that they did not comply with the restrictions was stated by 4% of the respondents (sometimes 12% did), and 2.7% did not recommend doing this to patients (8.6% recommended sometimes to comply).

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56.5% of doctors are sure that restrictions can improve the epidemiological situation, 24.4% do not believe in it. 26.6% of respondents agreed that the measures taken earlier helped to reduce the number of cases. The fact that such restrictions would be effective only if they were observed by all, was stated by 68.8%. 3.6% called the previously adopted restrictions useless, and 1% said that they only worsened the situation.

When asked what measures can most effectively contain the increase in the number of coronavirus infections, 50% called individual social isolation of people, 43.4% - the mandatory wearing of masks and gloves, 31.8% - total quarantine following the example of CHINA , 20.8% - access to public places only by QR code, 19.8% - compulsory vaccination of the entire population, 11.3% - criminal liability for violation of the mask regime. A significant number of respondents - 50% - spoke in favor of increasing the involvement of medical workers in the fight against coronavirus by returning "covid allowances" and payments.

Up-to-date data on coronavirus in Russia and the world. Infographic Society

According to 34.8% of respondents, “improving the image of a Russian doctor”, informing about the current epidemiological situation and research in “understandable language” (31.8%) can encourage the population to comply with sanitary restrictions.

“Fair wages for all specialists”, and not just those working with COVID (37%), the creation of a sufficient staff of primary care doctors and the number of hospitals (31%) and a clear scientific justification for restrictions based on modern data could improve the attitude of doctors towards anti-COVID restrictions ( 22%).

In Russia, in recent weeks, there has been an increase in the incidence of covid-19 , which the HEAD of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, called the "next stage" of the pandemic. On August 18, for the second day in a row, the country recorded a daily increase in infections at a level of more than 30 thousand people. Also in Russia, the level of herd immunity has decreased - with a target of 80%, it has now fallen to 7.4%.

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Speaking about the increase in the incidence, Murashko called for a return to the mask regime and re-vaccination. In some regions, they decided to return the requirement for the mandatory wearing of masks in public places, the first to do so was in Buryatia. In a number of regions, including St. Petersburg and the Altai Republic, such a measure is advisory in nature.

Rospotrebnadzor said that at the federal level the situation with the incidence is not critical and there is no need to introduce restrictions. However, the agency recommended wearing masks in public places in regions where the weekly incidence rate exceeds 50 cases per 100,000 population.

In early August, American geneticist Dmitry Pruss told RBC that researchers had discovered a new variant of the coronavirus in Russia: a hybrid of the Omicron and Delta strains. The new strain has been given the unofficial name "Russian deltacron" and its dangers have yet to be studied. According to Rospotrebnadzor, as of August 10, six cases of this variant of the coronavirus were detected in Russia.