high national vaccination coverage for children, the lack of trust in the government and the health providers was from the outset believed likely to provide additional fuel for vaccine hesitancy attitudes, which have been regarded as pervasive in contemporary bulgarian society, with one january 2021 gallup poll seeing 46% of interviewees declaring that they will not take a covid-19 vaccine. prior to the pandemic, less than 4% of bulgarian adults opted for the flu vaccine. nonetheless, in the first three months since the vaccinations began bulgaria was roughly in line with the eu average, especially with other eastern european countries, when it came to the people's dispositions towards the vaccines. an exacta research group survey covering the period between 12 and 20 march 2021 revealed that the share of bulgarians categorically ruling out vaccination against covid-19 had fallen to below 40%. however, in may 2021 the country still occupied the top spot among eu countries with regard to vaccine skepticism, according to data from eurofound. in september 2021, in another gallup survey, 45% of the respondents declared that they had not been vaccinated and do not intend to do so. а nation-wide opinion sampling of 1151 adult bulgarian citizens conducted by the bulgarian academy of sciences, the university of national and world economy, bulgarian sociological association and the union of economists of bulgaria in mid 2021 showed that while 60% of respondents supported a full lockdown if necessary, a plurality (44.3 vs. 22.4%) preferred a natural infection to a vaccine if having to choose between the two, with 27.5 neutral regarding these options. there have been regional differences regarding the interest in the vaccinations and people residing in smaller cities and villages have been less enthusiastic about the "green corridors". education correlates positively with a desire for vaccination, with university educated people residing in the capital and aged over 40 being the most willing. skepticism regarding vaccines is a major issue when it comes to the romani people, though the interest among the members of this group has increased, with the one-dose janssen vaccine being the most popular. an april 2021 gallup survey revealed that 50% of bulgarians expressed qualified support for covid-19 vaccine passports while 43% were opposed. a darik radio poll of over 1300 bulgarians conducted shortly after the october 2021 introduction of the green certificate saw 32.6% of the respondents in favor of the pandemic control measures and approving of the vaccine pass, 28% accepting of the non-pharmaceutical interventions, but regarding the green pass in particular to be discriminatory, 32.16% totally opposed to it and 7% preferring a full lockdown. according to sociologist dimitar ganev from "trend", as of january 2022, the majority of the country's citizens remained negatively disposed towards the green pass requirement. vaccine preferences according to a march 2021 survey, 65.8% of the general practitioners' patients preferred one of the two rna vaccines, 28.9% expressed no preference while 5.3% gave the nod to oxford-astrazeneca, with the pfizer-biontech vaccine being the most in demand as part of the "green corridors". since its approval, janssen has gradually started to overtake moderna in terms of popularity, presumably due to it being one-shot, with 151 391 out of 647 382 administered doses between 12 may and 7 september being with this vaccine. it was the only one out of the four vaccines that was used more frequently in september 2021 compared to june 2021. explanations for the vaccine hesitancy the possibly false belief among many bulgarians that they have already had the virus and recovered from it has also been identified as a further contributing factor to the vaccine skepticism, being the most selected option in a gallup poll from march 2022. concerns about the vaccine safety and the side effects remain important reasons. in a prevailing climate of "informational anarchy", as characterized by social anthropologist haralan alexandrov, the media in bulgaria have been blamed for giving undue weight to vaccine skeptics, including those within the medical community, in their coverage of covid-19, thus mainstreaming a variety of fringe or pseudoscientific views, as well as refraining from showing the reality on the ground inside the covid-19 hospital wards. in sociologist aleksandar marinov's view, the discordant tone between the public institutions in the country is believed to have also negatively affected trust in the vaccines while in journalist yassen boyadzhiev's opinion politicians such as kiril petkov who are pro-vaccination have been overly accommodating of ill-intentioned vaccine skeptics and have made the mistake to include them in discussion groups on pandemic control measures. the business sector has also been criticized for not being actively engaged in agitating for vaccinations. the country as a whole, which faced high levels of intra-societal polarization during 2020 and 2021, has been identified as especially susceptible to disinformation warfare due to a lack of a developed infrastructure to guard against such tactics. such propaganda campaigns are sometimes driven from abroad, with some sources blaming the chinese and russian influence in that regard, seeing the anti-vaccine rhetoric as part of an orchestrated campaign against the country's future in the eu. according to kalin yanakiev, a lecturer in philosophy from sofia university, strong anti-vaccine attitudes in bulgaria tend to go hand in hand with anti-western views, russophilia, nationalism and identification with the orthodox faith. countering vaccine hesitancy due to the vaccine trepidations and the proliferation of conspiracy theories in bulgaria pertaining to the nature of the virus itself, an information and explanation campaign pertaining to the vaccines and directed at the general public, including educated groups such as teachers, and the physicians themselves, a low percentage of whom have recommended vaccination to their patients, with 20.8% of medical personnel immunized as of 27 june 2021, has been identified by some journalists as the real challenge with regard to vaccinating a sufficient number of people, so that herd immunity could be reached. public vaccinations of politicians have also been regarded as potentially useful in allaying people's fears of the covid-19 vaccines. the representative office of the european commission in sofia has pledged cooperation with the ministry of health in popularizing the vaccination campaign. in june 2021, european commissioner for health and food safety stella kyriakides visited bulgaria and discussed the country's vaccination program as well as suitable measures to broaden the appeal of the vaccines. with the who also offering financial support. hotels and restaurants in the albena resort achieved a high degree of vaccination coverage as a result of the provision of financial incentives by the management. in july 2021, as part of its strategy for encouraging vaccinations, the ministry of education took the decision to offer two additional days of paid leave to educators who are vaccinated while the schools where at least 70% of staff members are vaccinated will receive a certificate for contribution to public health. food vouchers have been offered to vaccinated people making purchases in supermarkets, though this strategy has not made a significant difference in encouraging vaccine uptake. the offering of financial bonuses is believed likely to yield dividends in increasing the vaccination drive among the generally less affluent romanis. in september 2021, caretaker minister of tourism stella baltova announced that the health ministry will organize draws for people who are vaccinated. all bulgarian citizens over the age of 12 who were vaccinated between 30 september and 31 october 2021 were able to enter a draw, organized by the ministry of health, for one of 102 smartphones, with the youngest participant aged 12 and the oldest 92. in november 2021, economist georgi angelov suggested that each vaccinated retiree receive 1000 leva as a bonus. some public figures such as health inspector angel kunchev have urged that vaccinations be made mandatory for medical personnel and social workers in frequent contact with elderly people while former head of pirogov hospital asen baltov has expressed the opinion that in addition to the latter two categories, teachers, police officers and army personnel should be required to complete a vaccination course. former caretaker health minister stoycho katsarov has also been sympathetic to the idea of people with certain occupations being subject to obligatory vaccinations. while strongly encouraging all bulgarians to take a covid-19 vaccine, in january 2022 prime minister kiril petkov ruled out the option of his government introducing mandatory vaccination. in december 2021, the national council of the religious communities in bulgaria began working together with the ministry of health with the purpose of raising awareness regarding the benefits of vaccination. on 23 december 2021, newly elected prime minister kiril petkov announced that each person over the age of 65 years who completes the vaccination course or has already received a booster dose will have 75 leva added to the next pension he/she is to receive. this initiative was set to run between 1 february and 30 june 2022 and it was subsequently confirmed that it would include retirees below the age of 65 as well. the controversial banners near the old house of the national parliament and the monument to the tsar liberator, opposing all covid-19 vaccines. the text in large blue letters expresses the opposite sentiment, reading "we are illiterate populists and liars." political aspects and protests many politicians have been reluctant to broach the subject of vaccines. according to analysis posted by journalist nikolay lavchiev, only two parties - gerb and dps - could be credibly described as explicitly pro-vaccination in terms of actively encouraging their sympathizers to get a vaccine. parties on the far right, such as vazrazhdane, have expressed strong reservations regarding the vaccinations, even though a number of the party's deputies in the national parliament have been administered covid-19 vaccines. the mainstream itn has also been accused by some sources of dabbling in anti-vaccine rhetoric. the 47th national assembly began its sessions without a green certificate requirement for the deputies, but on his election as new prime minister in december 2021 kiril petkov introduced such a measure for the council of ministers, which entered into force in february 2022. on 7 january 2022, the deputies took the decision that access to the national parliament will be conditional upon the possession of a green certificate, starting from 24 january. the members of itn and vazrazhdane did not participate in the vote. due to the lack of a specified punitive mechanism for non-compliance with this requirement, there has been no enforcement by the national security service, with a number of deputies continuing to attend sessions without such a document. a small protest against the vaccinations took place on 17 march 2021, in front of the ministry of health, while a similar demonstration occurred on 29 may 2021, in front of a vaccination began at yuzhen park. small-scale protests against mandatory vaccinations and pandemic control measures continued to occur in august and september. such protests increased in intensity after green certificates were mandated for indoor public places in october 2021. on 12 january 2022, vazrazhdane held a large demonstration against the green certificates that took place in the vicinity in the national parliament, during which sympathizers of the party attempted to break through the police lines and enter the building. on 23 february 2022, the party organized a similar protest while also expressing approval that on 21 february the government had vowed to gradually phase out the vaccine pass. a drawing covering the topic of the covid-19 vaccination, appearing to give a nod to conspiracy theories regarding the vaccines.