MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Those politicians who have opposed vaccination against the novel coronavirus have been trying to "score cheap political points on the health of the nation," Russian President Vladimir Putin told the customary yearend news conference in Moscow on Thursday.

"Those who back in the Soviet era governed a large country and who, incidentally, were responsible for its collapse, are now in the first ranks of those opposed to vaccination. In this way they try to achieve higher ratings among that part of the population which feels doubts if the vaccination is really necessary. This is a dishonest stance. Competent people, who take a responsible attitude to their electorate and the people whom they are expected to protect, are obliged to take a high-principled stance, and not score cheap points on the health of the nation," Putin said.

Earlier, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the opponents of vaccination as "dangerous fools." Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said in reply to a similar question that such campaigners were acting in an "unreasonable way." The chief of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova believes that such people are "panic-stricken."

Other medics offered far harsher comments. The chief doctor of Moscow’s hospital 67 Andrey Shkoda described this phenomenon as "belligerent obscurantism".

The deputy chief doctor for anesthesiology and intensive care at Moscow’s hospital 52, Sergey Tsarenko was brief: "Idiots."

And the chief pediatrician of the Moscow Health Service Department, Ismail Osmanov slammed antivaxxers as "information terrorists.".