With more than 370,000 confirmed covid-19 cases in Russia, many people remain skeptical about the danger of the virus.
Russian presidential press secretary dmitry peskov urged people to change their minds and take the novel coronavirus virus seriously, ria novosti reported.
“In my personal experience, this’ joke ‘[about viruses being dangerous] is true,” he was quoted as saying on the same day.
About 30 percent of russians are skeptical about the danger of a novel coronavirus, while 23 percent believe reports of the virus’s dangers have a “political element” linked to the interests of certain individuals, according to an opinion poll cited by ria novosti.
Peskov was asked by a reporter on May 28 whether the kremlin had seen people’s distrust of official information from some Russian people who questioned the danger of novel coronavirus.
Mr. Peskov responded that this could be because people don’t want to watch the news or observe how many people around them are sick and how they get sick.
Peskov also called for people to take the information seriously and show more trust, the report said.
Not only that, but he cited himself as an example. “in my personal experience, this’ joke ‘[about viruses being dangerous] is true,” he said.
On May 12, peskov and his wife were both diagnosed with covid-19 and hospitalized.
A dozen days later, local time 25, peskov recovered from the hospital.