[ad_1]
We’d get another five million Modern vaccines
Telex was the first to write last week that the Hungarian government had immobilized only half of the available amounts of Moderna vaccines from the European Union. According to the table of the official information portal of the Hungarian coronavirus, we expect 1,744 million vaccines from the American company, which is enough to vaccinate 872 thousand people. Of this amount, as of February 23, only 39,600 doses had been received.
The European Commission distributes each vaccine based on population, which means that Hungary is entitled to 2.1% of the vaccines that reach the EU with a population of almost 450 million. Last November, the Commission first contracted Moderna to supply 80 million vaccines and 80 million additional options. This option was first requested in December and then in mid-February the Commission announced another contract to deliver an additional 150-150 million units at Moderna in 2021 and 2022.
Of a total of 310 million vaccines by 2021, Hungary would be entitled to 6.5 million, almost five million more than what the government has pledged so far.
By the way, this is similar in the case of other vaccines purchased in the EU, of the 2.6 billion doses contracted so far, Hungary indicated its demand of only 24 million units, compared to a possible 54.6 million.
This EU amount, of course, includes the full contractual part along with possible additional options, not just deliveries in 2021, as Moderna, for example, has assumed 150 million out of the 460 million for 2022 alone. At the same time, it is Of course, not only are the almost 5 million Modern vaccines mentioned not in demand by the government at the moment,
for none of the EU treaties, we have so far made a full appeal.
Of course, the values in the table above change from day to day, last week Viktor Orbán spoke about another 17 million linked vaccines, and we have ordered additional quantities since then. It is also important to note that the Commission’s option orders are included, which have not yet been requested by the manufacturers.
At first, government communication was also unlucky
After the first news in the press, the government communication was also regrettable about vaccines. On Friday for the first time, Viktor Orbán responded to the proposal, saying that “if we could vaccinate with a bandage, we would be on top, but it could only be vaccinated with a vaccine.” He noted that we had reserved 17 million doses, but only a fraction had been received so far. On Saturday, the Coronavir Press Center told RTL Club News that Moderna vaccines were more expensive than Pfizer’s similar active ingredient and had more unfavorable delivery terms.
This statement was regrettable because, until now, the government has quite rightly communicated that, regardless of the cost, saving lives is paramount.
On Sunday, Gergely Gulyás, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, wrote on his Facebook page that more than 1.7 million vaccines in the press would be delivered by Moderna in December alone, so they have not yet been called.
But then why don’t you need the western vaccine if you can come?
After the above, we also contacted the government and the European Commission to find out why Hungary did not call out all available vaccines. The Government Information Center drew our attention to another statement made by Secretary of State Zoltán Kovács:
According to this, the government ordered all the vaccines available in the EU in proportion to the population during the first half of this year, in addition to purchasing an additional seven million Russian and Chinese vaccines.
We have received a response from the European Commission that the details of each contract cannot be disclosed, that is, the timetable to which each manufacturer has committed to deliver the vaccines is not public. Thus, we do not even know how much Moderna undertook in each quarter. The corresponding Commission spokesperson only referred to the graph presented at last week’s EU summit, which shows the possible distribution of all deliveries:
Based on this, fewer than 600 million doses could be received from manufacturers by the end of June, which could be enough for up to two-thirds of the 450 million inhabitants. And that includes shipments that have yet to be confirmed by manufacturers. In relation to this, the Portfolio highlighted last week that based on already confirmed deliveries, only 3.6 million people could receive enough vaccinations in Hungary by mid-year.
In other words, the government may not have ordered all western vaccines (for now) because it wants to achieve the highest possible vaccination by mid-year, but manufacturers would only deliver larger batches to the EU in the second half of the year. . year and in 2022.
Furthermore, it is not even certain that the government will automatically waive this amount, since Depending on the vaccine, you may be able to report your need for vaccinations at a later date.. The Commission should, in principle, report on withdrawals on a monthly basis, for example on Monday, for example in relation to the Pfizer vaccine, Cecília Müller announced at the operational staff briefing that 4.5 million additional orders had been received of the available quota. confirmed.
Why are vaccines not reaching Europe faster?
Apart from the above, another question is why vaccines are not reaching the European Union faster. After all, more than half of the population in Israel has received the first vaccine, and in the US there are rumors that soon the demand will be limited rather than the supply, that is, there will be a vaccine, but not it is known to whom it will be administered. that. By comparison, the EU is far behind in terms of vaccinations.
The main reason for this is that the European Commission later ordered that otherOn the other hand, there were reports that Brussels was trying to negotiate the lowest possible price with producers, which set it back in the supply ranking. Already in November, a few days before the first agreement with the EU, the leader of Moderna said that they were ahead of us, only after that could we expect a vaccine. The United States, for example, began ordering from the company in August last year, and when the Commission reached an agreement with them, 100 million units had already been ordered. But Switzerland, Canada, Japan and Israel were also ahead of the EU. Stephane Bancel also emphasized that it was much more difficult to reach an agreement with the European Union in the interest of the 27 member states, for example, Canada was able to obtain the contract indoors in two weeks while negotiating with the Commission for months. We would be in an even worse situation, as it would have been difficult to kick the ball with the market of 10 million Hungarians in addition to the big countries, on the one hand we would be even further back in line, and on the other hand the price could be significantly higher.
Earlier this year, an insider told Euractiv that only the first 80 million vaccines ordered from Moderna could reach Europe in September, followed by the delivery of 80 million additional options and 150 million new vaccines ordered under the second contract in the last three months. of the year.
Top image: Éva Kővári, GP, vaccinated a patient with the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at the doctor’s office in Szigethalm on March 1, 2021. MTI / Szilárd Koszticsák
[ad_2]
