Why does Bulgaria have the EU’s lowest vaccination rates?

With more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases and 100 deaths a day, Bulgaria is fast approaching another peak in infections. But as the death toll mounts and the healthcare system becomes overstrained, most Bulgarians are still refusing COVID-19 vaccines. Bulgaria has the lowest rate of vaccinations in the 27-nation European Union, with just 21.8 percent of its population inoculated amid an abundant supply of vaccines.One of the millions of Bulgarians who do not want to get the jab is Dimo Indzhov, a 30-year-old sales representative living in Sofia. “I’m not worried about side effects; every medicine has side effects. Rather, it’s the fact that the vaccines are very new and their trials on humans have been rushed through,” he told Al Jazeera.