Information is spreading that Mongolia has vaccinated 97.8% of the adult population against coronavirus and at the same time has taken first place in the world in terms of current incidence. We decided to check whether such sanitary and epidemiological data about this country are correct.

Mass vaccination, which did not prevent, but, on the contrary, provoked a major outbreak of coronavirus infection, is written not only by numerous Telegram channels And bloggers, but also such federal media as "Regnum" And "Moskovsky Komsomolets". How they tell Media, “by August 17, 2021, 97.8% of the adult population, that is, over 2 million people, had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus in Mongolia; in early September, Mongolia took first place in the world in terms of current incidence, breaking its own previous absolute record for the number of daily infections, and even surpassed Israel.”

Let's start our review with the statement that 97.8%, or over 2 million, have been vaccinated in the country. If we turn to authoritative resources that collect information on vaccination progress, we we'll seethat in Mongolia only 63.6% have been fully vaccinated, and another 3.88% have received only one dose of the vaccine. Where did the figure of 97.8% come from? It is most likely that journalists missed an important clarifying detail when preparing the material - the figure is 97.8% applies not to all of Mongolia, but only to its capital Ulaanbaatar. What is noteworthy, May 20 “Regnum” published news about the high pace of vaccination in the capital, in which the numbers were given correctly.

Now let’s look at the claim that universal vaccination has led to a significant increase in the incidence of disease. Mongolia is actually quite successful carried out sanitary and epidemiological measures throughout 2020, the first (spring 2020) and second (autumn 2020) global waves of the pandemic almost not affected.

Rise in incidence started in January 2021, and at the end of February started vaccination. The country uses four vaccines: the Russian Sputnik V, a drug from the Chinese company Sinopharm, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as AstraZeneca. It turns out that vaccination began right in the midst of the epidemic. It is also worth noting that by the winter-spring of 2021 (the third global wave and, in fact, the first wave for Mongolia), the country, which observed lockdown and quarantine, arrived without a significant layer of those who had recovered from the disease, and therefore had developed immunity. At the start of vaccination (February 23) in Mongolia was 2,755 cases of infection, and in Russia - 4.14 million. If converted into percentages, in Mongolia there were 0.08% of confirmed cases of the entire population, and in Russia - already 2.8%. You need to understand that when talking about the total number of cases, we mean those who were sick at that moment, and those who were ill and successfully developed immunity, as well as those who died. It is also important to consider that at the beginning of spring 2021, among all options starts it is “Delta” that prevails - most contagious (infectious) of all existing coronavirus mutations.

At the same time, mass vaccination helped prevent a critical rise in morbidity and mortality. As of September 14, Mongolia, where, according to the latest data, 68% of the population had been vaccinated with at least one dose, had only 260,709 cases and 1,074 deaths. And Russia, where 32% of the population is vaccinated, has 7.07 million cases and 191,566 deaths. Translating again into percentages of the population, in more vaccinated Mongolia only 7.7% of the population got sick, and only 0.03% died, and in less vaccinated Russia, only 4.9% of the population got sick, but 0.13% died, that is, in Russia the mortality rate is 4.3 times higher. From these data, it can be concluded that the significant rise in incidence in March-April is due to the penetration and dominance of the highly contagious Delta variant, and not the start of vaccination. If mass immunization had not begun in February, the mortality rates would have been at the level of Russia, and perhaps even higher, since in Mongolia at the time of the arrival of Delta, unlike Russia, there was no layer of people who already had natural immunity acquired during the first and second waves. Thus, the situation developed in the opposite scenario than the statement in the title - vaccination significantly reduced the overall losses for the country.

And finally, the third statement: “In early September, Mongolia took first place in the world in terms of current incidence, breaking its own previous absolute record for the number of daily infections, and even surpassed Israel.” On September 14 level incidence in Mongolia was 886.81 people per million. For comparison, on the same date: in Israel - 1254.49, in the Dominican Republic - 1258.90, and in Grenada - 1305.77. As we can see from the data presented, this statement is also incorrect. The daily increase in cases in Israel, mentioned in the comparison, is higher than in Mongolia, and the Dominican Republic and Grenada are even more ahead of Mongolia.

Thus, in the statement about universal vaccination, journalists made a serious mistake by passing off the figures for the capital as figures for the country. In addition, journalists, comparing morbidity figures before and during vaccination, missed an important fact - at that moment, the most contagious variant in the world and in the country was the “Delta” variant. It is also incorrect to say that Mongolia has become a leader in the daily increase in incidence - at least Israel, the Dominican Republic and Grenada are above it.