VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria (AP) — Standing outside a rundown public hospital in northern Bulgaria, the chief vaccination nurse voices a sad reality about her fellow Bulgarians: “They don’t believe in vaccines.” Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the 27-nation European Union and is facing a new, rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. Despite that, people in this Balkan nation are the most hesitant in bloc to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Only 20% of adults in Bulgaria, which has a population of 7 million, have so far been fully vaccinated. That places it last in the entire EU, which has an average fully vaccinated rate of 69%.
