Iraq has enough doses of COVID vaccine for everyone. But many Iraqis don't trust it

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/02/17/ [login to see] /iraq-has-enough-doses-of-covid-vaccine-for-everyone-but-many-iraqis-dont-trust-i
At a crowded market in Sadr City, a working-class neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, 42-year-old vendor Jasim Khudhaier stands behind a pile of shoes, sneakers and sandals.

Like most of the vendors, he's not wearing a mask – but shares that he has been deeply affected by COVID. He lost two sisters to the disease in the first wave of the pandemic. He was sick with it himself for a month early in 2021.

Yet Khudhaier refuses to get vaccinated.

"I don't trust this vaccine because some people say it can cause bad side effects," Khudhaier says. "I know many people who have taken the vaccine. But I don't have faith in it."

Only about 17% of Iraqis are fully vaccinated against COVID even though the country has enough vaccine doses for anyone who wants them. The vaccination rate is far below the global average of 54% and a far cry from the World Health Organization's goal of getting at least 70% of residents of every country fully vaccinated by the end of June. Iraqi government health workers are now trying to build confidence around the vaccine and get more people vaccinated.