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meIt was a valuable commodity that was brought to Budapest by a discreet cargo plane in mid-February: the Chinese crown vaccine from manufacturer Sinopharm. The Hungarian government had specially sent the machine to China for collection. There were 550,000 doses of vaccination on board. Since the end of February they have been vaccinated against Hungarians.
In the last two weeks, the country has overtaken all other EU countries. A total of 1.1 million people have already received their first dose of vaccine, 14 percent of the population. This makes Hungary the European vaccination champion: only in the small state of Malta are there proportionally more immunized people. With a vaccination rate of 9.4 percent, Germany ranks 16th in the EU.
Source: WORLD Infographic
Hungary dropped out of the European ordering process at the end of last year. The country ordered seven million doses of vaccines in Moscow and Beijing, in addition to the 19 million ordered from the EU. Currently, vaccines from Russia and China are distributed faster than European ones. Currently, many European countries are considering requesting vaccines outside the EU.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is now testing the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Hungary acted before anyone else. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also wanted to exert political pressure on the EU, with which he has been at odds for years. But what many observers dismissed as a PR number is now turning out to be a successful vaccination strategy.
Just a few weeks ago, things looked very different. Many Hungarians had doubts about the Chinese vaccine after its approval in mid-February. They found the swift approval of the Hungarian health authorities suspicious. Experts were also skeptical, accusing China of a lack of transparency. Some doctors initially refused to inoculate the Sinopharm vaccine because the brochure was not available in Hungarian.
“I cannot answer that Hungarians are dying because Brussels is too slow.”
Since the beginning of the year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been promoting the vaccine personally: “The Chinese are the ones who have known about the virus for the longest time, so I think they are the ones who know the most about it,” he told Kossuth radio station. At the same time, the head of government used the issue to criticize the EU: “You cannot answer for Hungarians who die just because Brussels is too slow,” he said in January. If the vaccines did not come from Europe, they would simply have to be brought from elsewhere. At the end of February, they injected him with the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine. A video team documented the prime minister’s vaccination for its Facebook page.
When the country started using Sinopharm two weeks ago, the rate of vaccination dramatically sped up. In a few days, Hungary surpassed all the other largest EU countries. “We would be in a much more difficult position if we didn’t have the Chinese vaccine,” health authority NNK said when asked.
The skepticism of the Hungarians diminished in a short time. “We are currently in the middle of the third wave, the hospitals are full and the mortality rate is record high,” immunologist András Falus from Semmelweis University in Budapest told WELT. “This ensures that people accept any vaccine, no matter where it comes from.”
In fact, according to Johns Hopkins University, Hungary has the third highest death rate in the world, after Mexico and Peru. The number of cases in the country has grown exponentially in the last two weeks.
The journalist Ádám Bihari of the government critical weekly “HVG” sees it in a similar way. Many people, especially opposition supporters, have always stated that they do not want the Chinese vaccine. Often they only accepted EMA-approved vaccines. “But when they are called in and given the option of getting Sinopharm vaccinated now or waiting a few more weeks, the situation changes,” says Bihari. Despite his initial skepticism, he would now receive the Sinopharm vaccine himself.
Yet another factor is decisive for the country’s success: In the meantime, Hungary has turned its vaccination sequence upside down. The first thing to do is vaccinate the doctors and clinicians. Subsequently, vaccination of those over 80 years of age was originally planned, followed by those over 60. The fourth group must be under the age of 60 with chronic diseases before everyone else receives the injection. But in practice it did not work. Only the first group received the full vaccination as planned. The remaining groups now have their turn. “A lot of chaos was unleashed, but that should be one of the reasons why it goes faster,” says András Falus.
The rapid immunization of the population is also facilitated by the simple infrastructure. Anyone who wants to get vaccinated can register with their details on a government website. These are then sent to hospitals and resident physicians, who inform their patients via text messages or phone calls when it is their turn. “It works quite well and ensures that people get to appointments quickly,” says journalist Bihari.
So far there has only been one incident. Last week, 75,000 people mistakenly received a text message telling them that they could get vaccinated with the drug AstraZeneca right away. The ad, which was probably sent due to a computer error, had to be withdrawn. But those who went to the doctor or the vaccination center anyway received their vaccine spontaneously.
Hungary could vaccinate even faster. Of all the cans delivered, only 56 percent were injected. 44 percent are still in the refrigerators. Whether this will be successful remains to be seen. But even with the current rate, the health authority is optimistic: for the beginning of April it expects 1.3 million additional first vaccines, and for July with the vaccination of the entire population.
