Hungary is the country that has authorized more coronavirus vaccines in the world, seven so far: the four also authorized by the European Union – AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson – two Chinese vaccines, produced by CanSino and Sinopharm, and the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V. It has authorized, like 29 other countries in the world , also Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India.
Despite being a member of the European Union, Hungary wanted to adopt a substantially autonomous approach in the vaccination campaign: the fact that it has authorized vaccines on which the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not yet made assessments testifies to the will of the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to emancipate himself from the other countries of the bloc, and to build complicit relations with other allies, such as China.
The CanSino vaccine, which requires only one administration, is the second vaccine from China authorized in Hungary, where since the end of February is administered the one produced by the Chinese company Sinopharm. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was also vaccinated with Sinopharm.
COVID 2/110. I’m vaccinated // Vaccinated ✅
Published by Viktor Orban its Sunday 28 February 2021
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With Orbán ruling the country in a semi-authoritarian way, Hungary has progressively over the past few years thorough its relations with China. Those with the European Union have deteriorated over time, until the recent exit of Orbán’s party, Fidesz, from the center-right coalition of the European People’s Party (EPP). Orbán is one of the European Union’s most prominent sovereign and Eurosceptic leaders: his presence in the EPP and his extremist ideas had always been grudgingly accepted by the party’s sizeable centrist and moderate majority.
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Hungary is vaccinating at a good pace, and around 16 percent of the population (1.6 million out of 9.8 million total) has already received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine: for comparison, in Italy we are a just over 9 percent. Despite this, and despite a lockdown in force in the country, in the last week the infections have averaged over 8 thousand a day, double compared to the beginning of March.
Europe’s vaccine race.
Nice visualisation by @DieTukkerfries pic.twitter.com/Cbo5hVibeb— Naomi O’Leary (@NaomiOhReally) March 23, 2021
Despite being among the European countries to have vaccinated more people than the population, in the third wave of the pandemic, Hungary is experiencing a large increase in infections and has one of the highest mortality rates in the world: since the beginning of the pandemic in the country 191 per 100 thousand inhabitants died, more than countries like Italy (175), or the United States (164). For this reason, the head of the national public health center, Cecilia Müller, said she hopes that other vaccines can also arrive in the country, because they are “the only way out of the epidemic”.
Autonomously contracting vaccines with pharmaceutical companies, without having the European Union behind, is quite expensive: Hungary pays for Sinopharm’s vaccine 30 euro a dose. The contracts entered into by the European Union with pharmaceutical companies have never been published, but according to various international media a dose of Pfizer, which is the most expensive among those authorized, it would cost to the European Union about 15 euros.
Although the last two vaccines – Convidecia and Covishield – have been authorized only for emergency use, it is likely that they will soon be used to vaccinate the entire population, as Müller herself said, given the worrying epidemiological situation. In Monday’s conference, Müller stressed the need to make every effort to reduce the overload of the health system, which is currently in serious distress: some hospitals they were forced to ask for the help of volunteers other than medical personnel.
Orbán said that the Hungarian health system will hold up the third wave, and that the country could begin to relax the restrictive measures when it has vaccinated at least 2.5 million people, about a quarter of the Hungarian population. The management of this phase of the epidemic for Orbán will also be very important in view of the elections of 2022, in which he seeks a re-election.
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