Russian homeless (not) are vaccinated from Covid-19

The vaccination of the homeless from the Covid-19 is a blind zone of social policy in Moscow and other regions of Russia. To get vaccinated, you need several documents, including a passport and a medical policy, which people living on the street usually do not. The tramps remaining without vaccines not only risk themselves, but also become carriers of the disease. Public organizations providing assistance to the homeless are trying to change this situation. But even now, a year and a half after the start of the pandemic, the homeless people are mainly deprived of access to the vaccine. At the same time, only in Moscow, according to the official figures of the Department of Labor and Social Protection of the City Hall, does 14 thousand homeless people live (informal estimates suggest that their number is from 60 to 100 thousand people). Julia Belokopytova found out how the homeless can get a vaccine and what needs to be changed in the existing system of social support in order to save life.

According to the director of the Moscow branch of the Overnight charity foundation Daria Baibakova, in 2020 5634 homeless citizens died in Moscow - such statistics gives volunteers Rosstat. For comparison: a year earlier, 420 people died on the streets of Moscow.

Coronavirus infection affects everyone, regardless of social status. The head of the Petersburg non -profit organization “Charitable Hospital” Sergei Ievkov believes that mass vaccination of people without a certain place of residence is vital: “Among the homeless there is a huge number of elderly, with chronic diseases - this is a risk group of number one, it shows vaccination.”

“People who have any pre-existing states of health, illness and who also live on the street, in cold, without normal medical care, are the main group of the risk of death, the severe course of all diseases. They cannot be treated normally, they do not have access to medical care. Therefore, it is the vaccination that is a way to save them, to preserve their health and life, ”says the molecular biologist and scientific journalist Irina Yakutenko.

The ability to get a vaccine for homeless is related to the interests of society as a whole.

The vagrants take on the most terrible blow of the coronavirus. They cannot be isolated, quarantine.

“The danger of infection is growing for medical personnel, for volunteers who work with homeless people, for police officers - those who are in contact with homeless people. Theoretically, they, like any group, become a reservoir for the formation of new strains, if you ignore vaccination, ”Irina Yakutenko explains.

Public and charitable organizations, as well as volunteer associations, give consultations, help with attachment to hospitals, restore documents, and provide first aid. The volunteers of the Moscow "Overnight" for the second year help the tramps survive the pandemia.

“We do everything that we can do on our own: we have a medical volunteer along with the“ night bus ”, we agreed with the center that tests customers of the consulting service for HIV, hepatitis and, including antibodies to Covid. We also send a person to our social service, if he needs medical care, we help with the restoration of the policy, attach to the hospital and hospitalization, ”says Daria Baibakova.

But volunteer organizations do not have means and medical receptors for the purchase of specialized drugs to combat infections and viral diseases. In addition, private funds cannot vaccinate people - this is the competence of the state.

NPOs are trying to convince the authorities to simplify the algorithm for obtaining a vaccine for people living on the street.

“People often pick up the infection - we are powerless here,” the doctors of the Overnight explain.

The problem is aggravated against the background of the fourth wave of the epidemic and the onset of cold weather. Autumn for people without housing is a season of disease. “They have low immunity, and they are much easier to pick up any infection,” says Daria Baibakova.

The nurses of the Night Bus say that the vaccination of the homeless from the Covid-19 is a problem. For preventive injections, you need a number of documents: compulsory medical insurance, passport, SNILS. Without standard personality verification, vaccination is not available. “Otherwise, you will not receive a certificate. Everything means that a homeless person will have no vaccine, ”the health workers complain.

"Home" think that we live like in the forest "

The central “Night Bus” in Moscow (the project “Overnight”, in which the homeless is rendered daily food, clothing and medical care) is located on Krasnoprudnaya Street, next to the three Moscow stations.

A small open area. Either the old warehouse base, or parking. In the middle there are several cars with the inscription "Volunteer" and the minibus "Overnight". Near the turn of people. All of them came here for food. Almost all are homeless.

The location for the collection of various volunteer and public organizations is located near the area of ​​three stations not by chance. The traffic of people without a home here is especially large. According to local regulars, the railway infrastructure gives spaciousness for planning an overnight and other homeless life.

“Where to sleep at night? Well, wherever you have to. To be honest, I have a scan. A small garage. But, basically, if there is nowhere to sleep, then wagons. Well, yes! Electric trains, old reserved seats. It happens that they also leave the luxury class: SV, compartment, ”says a large man named Victor, who has been wandering for four years.

The “night bus” has a queue of 80. Everyone who received food is called the name-familia and depart. Here, at a concrete fence, they sit down to eat.

- Hello, please remind the last name. Petrov. Yeah, I will find you. So ... Druzhinin, Druzhinin ... - Lilia’s room volunteer holds a tablet in his hands, registers everyone who came for food.

She explains that statistics are conducted in order to understand how often a person turns for help. “Homeless biography” consists of such appeals: information about how many people live on the street, what complaints and health status, appears at the disposal of the “night.

“Ovchinnikov,” tells a middle -aged man with a cup of soup in his hands.

- Okay, I understand. Next time you come, we just note you.

A tall, cheeky man is suitable:

-Is there anything from coughing?

- Cough or throat hurts?

- I caught a cold, the cough is now. Bad, especially at night. Cold.

The tramps do not have the opportunity to get subsidized emergency medical care in severe infectious disease. Any more or less dangerous infection can become fatal for them.

“Willed, injured, with burns, firearms and stab wounds, homeless people most often die. What to say about vaccination.

Covid-19 vaccination is generally from the field of privileges, ”the volunteer of one of the NGOs shares his opinion not to mention his last name.

In addition to the “night bus”, other volunteers and social activists come to the Krasnoprudnaya: immediately the Doctor Lisa minivan, strong men in black sweaters with the inscription “Volunteer”. Muscovites come here to convey things to the homeless, help with food and essential goods.

“Have you heard how I am bating of the songs?” -a woman came up with bright blue eyes in an artificial sheepskin coat,-Well, as they say, homeless bums are people, and we are people, and there are no one there ... I’m never sick of anything. I'm not afraid to get sick ... but you know why? Because hardening, hardening is purely northern.

Among the homeless, volunteers say, there are anti -pristes. Most often this is due to the difficult conditions of the "street" life. In addition, all state, official, power and departmental people without housing are concerned.

- I'm surviving, the guys here all help. And they are suitable from the station - they went out of here, homeless people. Although we are cleaner there. Many are cleaner. I don’t know, we don’t seem to do bad to anyone. But we are driven like stray dogs. We are not home, yes, we are street people! So what? And I don't want injections! Without a “satellite” we will somehow pull out. Why drive excess rubbish under the skin?! - the woman argues.

“We have to prick and fall to the bottom of the well,” a dark -skinned man in a Bologna jacket sings next to Vysotsky.

- Are you Salnikov? - Volunteer Lilia is looking for a surname in the list.

- And what, they will make a newspaper about us? Journalists came, ”the man said.

-Make, make it! How do you feel about vaccination? I ask.

- I would beg with! They say that it is not very tolerated, but I still want to live! What is bad in vaccination. Many here (shows the queue in front of the “night bus”) they want to get merged.

“Home” for some reason think that we live like in the forest. We all read and know about the "satellite".

To save a person without a piece of paper

The volunteers of the St. Petersburg "Overnight" said that the situation with the vaccination from Covid-19, they fundamentally do not differ from the Moscow one. According to NPOs, about 60 thousand homeless people live in St. Petersburg, but only units were vaccinated:

“There is no possibility of vaccination of people who have no documents. And as if it are not planned. We tried to communicate with officials, everyone says - there are documents, which means that the person will be blown up, no, which, unfortunately, is impossible to do anything. In turn, we managed to agree through the Health Committee on the vaccination of those wards who have documents, ”said Danil Kramorov, a representative of the Overnight in St. Petersburg.

However, at the end of July, the “overnight stay” began to vaccinate those citizens who do not have identity documents: “We were able to agree with one of the clinics on the vaccination of people without documents. But this is a drop in the sea. For three weeks, attempts to vaccinate people without documents were vaccinated about 60 people. The problem is global, of course, not solved. ”

What are they saying about the problem in Moscow NGOs

Employees of the House of House of Hardness “Noah” said that the problem is all the same - only those who have restored the documents can be used: “The issue of vaccination of homeless people who do not have documents has not been worked out. If there is some kind of program (for example, in the TsSA named after EP Glinka), then most recently we have not yet touched us. ”

The fact that citizens are vaccinated against coronavirus without documents, said Lana Zhurkin, director of the Friends House charity center: “We are not given good to vaccinate the homeless. Most of the homeless - without documents. Those who have documents can take vaccination in the usual standard mode, like all citizens who are in Russia. And those who are without documents are still hanging in the air, because it is not clear how to take them into account. We wrote a letter about vaccination to the Department of Health of Moscow. The answer has not yet been received. ” The homeless themselves approach the volunteers and ask about vaccination from the Covid-19 virus, explained in the center.

Roman Plokhov, the head of the "Angara Salvation" of the Service Service, is sure that the state needs to take care of the health of each person, despite his status, especially during the pandemic: “It would be good if the state gave the homeless more opportunities to vaccinate. To do this, in places of accumulation of homeless people, you can put state tents and cars, make vaccination more affordable. One of these points can become, for example, the Moscow Center for Social Adaptation, a huge number of homeless people come there. ”

Nevertheless, in St. Petersburg, volunteers, together with medical workers, first began to offer the homeless to vaccinate. Employees of the Charitable Hospital project on their own organized trips with the Deaconia Foundation and the Kinoi Orthodox Youth Club at the city clinic No. 49.

The homeless was vaccinated without documents based on a medical institution.

According to the creator of the project "Charity Hospital" by Sergei Ievkov, from the beginning of the Pandemia of Coronavirus, employees began to actively promote the concept of vaccination among the homeless from Covid-19. An important circumstance that volunteers immediately indicated to medical officials is the lack of a passport, a policy and SNILS in most future patients.

“Gradually, officials shifted this problem, directed us further and further, and so we got to the clinic. By long negotiations with the head of the clinic, with an epidemiologist and doctors, we managed to organize trips to vaccinate homeless people without documents in St. Petersburg from the end of July 2021. For the first time it was possible to do this - it is without documents. Anyone can approach the van, name the name-and the doctor-therapist will examine him. If there are no contraindications, a person will receive a vaccine, he will be given a state -owned certificate with the seal of the clinic, and he will leave joyful and protected from Covid, ”explained the director of the Charitable Hospital.

The leadership of the NPO, together with the clinic staff, studied the federal vaccination register from the Covid-19. As it turned out, the unified state healthcare system also stores information about homeless people - old passports, medical records, driver’s licenses, long -standing appeals, and so on. To introduce information about vaccination in the vaccination register, you can use any of the documents.

“We dealt with the epidemiologists with this system, and it turned out that it was not necessary to have all the documents: you can use documents of an unidentified sample or have no documents at all to get a vaccine from Covid,” said Sergey Ievkov.

The team of the "Charitable Hospital" for six trips managed to instill 108 people.

In Chelyabinsk, on the initiative of the charity project “Other Medicine”, bypassing the standard vaccination procedure (using all the necessary documents), we were able to instill more than 100 homeless ones: “We simply turned to the local department of health, offered the most real conditions for vaccination of the homeless - the doctor’s departure to the place to take place under the supervision of doctors. Vaccination occurs on the basis of the medical institution. Moreover, trips are carried out three times a week. At first, the homeless treated this initiative wary. Then people began to agree, ”says Nikita Vasiliev, head of medical and preventive trips.

At the request of social activists, employees of the Health Department of Chelyabinsk found the necessary information about all homeless people in medical bases.

“Of course, they did not fill out anything at public services, we took over the functionality of the“ Vaccinated Diary ”. As a result, everything is fine - no one had any problems. All homeless people liked it. They did the PCR test before and after-they confirmed everything. The clinic took on medical work, as well as difficult - to search for documents, all legal issues. The depznev went to Nanabustra, so it was easy for us as a non -profit organization, ”explained in“ other medicine ”.

Nineteen officially sick

According to the Moscow Department of Health, only 19 homeless people addressed them with the symptoms of Koronavirus for 2021: “19 people handled the symptoms of a new coronavirus infection without a specific place of residence. All of them were provided with the necessary medical care in full. If a person without shelter wants to undergo vaccination from the Covid-19, then he needs to contact the Center for Social Adaptation to them. E.P. Glinka. Living in the CSS to them. E.P. Glinka can, at their request, undergo free vaccination from coronavirus infection in medical institutions or during exit vaccination in the center. ”

The Department of Labor and Social Protection of the Population confirmed the vaccination mechanism of the homeless. In the branches of the CSS named after Glinka is carried out first rehabilitation, and afterwards - vaccination of people who find themselves without housing. Before the injection, a detailed physical examination is made with the possibility of further treatment, delay or cancellation of vaccination.

The answers of the official departments provide different figures: “At the moment, about 95% of people who live in the CSA and have no contraindications have been spent,” the press service of the Department of Social Protection of the Population explained. “Currently, almost 86% of people who live in the CSA and not having contraindications have been blown. The rest that does not have medical bends will be vaccinated in the near future, ”said Fedor Antonov, head of the sanatorium-resort treatment department.

Employees of public services did not submit specific statistics. Whether there are enough “production facilities” of the Glinka rehabilitation center and four of its branches to work with thousands of homeless people in Moscow - remains a question.

Officials note that people who have passed rehabilitation procedures and restored documents receive an injection from coronavirus infection. Thus, the main condition for instilling citizens is observed - for vaccination is treated only with identification documents.

Отказ от вакцинации граждан из-за отсутствия бумажных документов кажется как минимум странным. Кроме того, на практике НКО добиваются бездокументных прививок от COVID-19 в регионах. Ведь, как выясняется, существуют базы данных, старые регистрации и другие отпечатки прошлой, «домашней» жизни бездомных.

Юлия Белокопытова — специально для «Новой»