'I am begging you, get the vaccine': pockets of fear emerge in Serbia

Mistrust is rife in country EU has said is launchpad for Russian disinformation and where mass vaccinations were mandatory in cold war-era

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Serbia's most famous citizen, the tennis champion Novak Djokovic, has been vocally cautious about vaccines. A government adviser on the pandemic told media last March that Covid-19 exists only on Facebook". When cases of measles spiked three years ago, authorities blamed the influence of a powerful anti-vaccination lobby.

Serbia is an unlikely candidate for continental Europe's most vaccinated nation so far. But since January the western Balkans nation has raced ahead of most of the world, delivering more than 31 jabs for every 100 people, according to statistics from Our World In Data, leaving countries such as Germany (13 doses per 100 people) and Canada (10.8 doses) in its wake.