Too few people in Bosnia trust vaccines

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, NOV 29 - Basically, "science journalism in Bosnia was invented by me," and in fact, even today, Jelena Kalinic in Bosnia is the only science journalist. She explains this herself on the sidelines of a seminar held at Sissa in Trieste. "I studied biology," Kalicin explains, "but there is a lot of corruption in my country, so I turned to science journalism, even though there are still few science institutes in Bosnia. And to better do her job, she collaborates as a 'stringer' for Voice of America and, most importantly, runs a website, Nauka govoni naukagovori.ba (Science Speaks). "I give training to students who write for the site, and I teach them how to do science journalism. When funds are available, we also do courses, interactive seminars." But what is the approach Bosnians have with this area? "In Bosnia and throughout the Western Balkans there is really a low level of scientific knowledge and very few have confidence in vaccines." No surprise, given also that "often the press is controlled by politics." But distrust of science sometimes results in tragedy: recently a two-month-old baby died of whooping cough and two other boys of measles; in Serbia, too, a baby died from the aftermath of whooping cough. In particular, "many people are against the papilloma vaccine: there is a belief that it drives sexual promiscuity." It is no coincidence that "people are becoming more and more conservative, more and more religious: there is a process of desecularization going on" and this is frightening. Throughout the area "governments are not very interested in Covid, they don't import vaccines, in fact I'm going to do it today here in Italy." (ANSA).