Russia s Sputnik V vaccine raises hopes in Moscow
Saxony-Anhalt State Premier Reiner Haseloff who is up for reelection next month defended his decision by saying that he was vaccinated against polio with a Russian vaccine in the former East and, as a result, had no issues with Russian vaccines.
In the east, support for the Russian vaccine goes hand in hand for some with a distrust of the federal government and a sense that East Germany and its accomplishments continue to be overlooked.
East Germans became very distrustful of the state over the decades and now that means the government in Berlin, said Silke Satjukow, a Russia expert and professor of history at Halle University who was vaccinated as a child in the GDR with Soviet vaccines. She says many Germans from the eastern states still identify with Russian scientific achievement.