Breaking the E.U. consensus, Hungary has received the first shipment of Chinese made covid-19 vaccine, developed by Sinopharm.
Breaking the European Union (E.U.) consensus, Hungary on Sunday, February 28, 2021, received the first shipment of China’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, developed by drugmaker Sinopharm.
As per the E.U. consensus, member states are required to act in solidarity and they should not indulge in separate purchase of vaccine. As per E.U., the vaccine has to be approved by European Medicines Agency (EMA), E.U.’s agency in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products. For distribution, it is the E.U. which is to distribute the vaccine amongst member states.
Most importantly, EMA has not approved the Chinese vaccine. Prior to this, Hungary had irked the E.U. by purchasing the Russia made Sputnik V, which is also not approved by the EMA. Hungary is the only member to violate the terms of E.U.’s centralised scheme.
Hungary has also ordered doses of the BioNTech – Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines through E.U.’s centralised scheme.
Taking it to Facebook, the Prime Minister of Hungary – Viktor Orban said (Translated from Hungarian), “COVID 2/110. I’m Vaccinated // Vaccinated” (Original Post in Hungarian: COVID 2/110. Oltva vagyok // Vaccinated ✅”)
Speaking on approving the Chinese vaccine, Orban said, “If we didn’t have the Russian and Chinese vaccines, we would be in big trouble.”
The European Commission has said that Hungary’s decision to approve the Sinopharm vaccine “falls outside of the EU vaccines strategy” and leaves Budapest vulnerable to damages claims should there be problems with the jab.
In bypassing the E.U. system, Hungary’s Government has taken legal, health and political risks. However, the Russian and Chinese deals also mean Hungary has access to far more doses than other E.U. countries.
As per the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Hungary has received 18.3 vaccine doses per 100 people, which puts it more than 50% ahead of Denmark, the next best-supplied E.U. country, which had received 12 doses per 100 people.
Hungary would now be able to vaccinate more people in the next fortnight than in the previous two months. The Government has planned to administer 275,000 doses in the next 7 days. The Government wants to vaccinate 2.4 million people by Easter or 24% of the population.
As far as going against E.U.’s central system is concerned, Orban said that the E.U.’s long procurement process and slow distribution compelled them to take the decision on their own. But E.U. delivery data suggest that Hungary has so far been comparatively well-supplied by the bloc’s scheme and is not among the countries on the verge of exhausting their E.U. supplies.
As per E.U., Hungary has received a combined total of 879,910 doses of all the vaccines approved by the EMA. Of this, it has only used 639,517 which is 73% of the doses.
It is to be noted that Orban has close ties with President of Russia – Vladimir Putin. Orban has also awarded the largest infrastructure project in the country to Chinese companies and had committed to opening a campus of China based Fudan University in the city.
