Russia counts cost of missteps, vaccine refusals as COVID tide keeps rising

People stand in a line to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in a vaccination centre located at a shopping mall in Oryol, Russia October 25, 2021. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

ORYOL, Russia (Reuters) - Ambulance attendant Roman Stebakov has come face-to-face with COVID-19 many times - but he'd rather take his chances with the disease than get himself injected with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

"I won't get vaccinated until, I don't know, they break me and vaccinate me by force. I don't see the point in it, there are no guarantees it's safe," says the paramedic from Oryol, 300 km (185 miles) south of Moscow.