BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Doctors in Hungary on Wednesday administered a COVID-19 vaccine developed in China, making the country the first European Union country to use a Chinese jab because officials trust in its safety and efficiency.
General practitioners throughout the Central European country have been instructed to administer the shots, developed by the Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinopharm, to elderly patients. The Sinopharm sample brings the number of vaccinations currently used in Hungary to five, including the Russian-developed Sputnik V, more than in any other EU country with 27 countries.
But to take full advantage of the country’s extensive range of vaccines, officials are seeking to increase public confidence in the Eastern countries.
“I ask that all fears about the Chinese and Russian vaccines be dispelled, as more than 30 million people have received these vaccines without any specific problems,” Hungary’s chief medical officer Cecilia Muller told a virtual media conference on Wednesday.
The Hungarian government has sharply criticized the speed of the EU’s vaccine program and sought to buy doses from countries such as China and Russia, despite polls showing that confidence in vaccines among Hungarians is low.
A survey of 1,000 people in the capital of Budapest by the Median polling station and the 21 Research Center showed that only 27% of those willing to be vaccinated would take a Chinese vaccine and 43% a Russian vaccine, versus 84% who would take a vaccination. jab developed in Western countries. The poll, which was conducted at the end of January, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
However, Hungarian officials expect the Synopharm vaccine, which was finally approved last week, to boost the country’s vaccination rate: as many as 368,000 people can be vaccinated this week alone, compared to 471,000 who have been vaccinated since got a chance. beginning in December, Secretary of State dr. Istvan Gyorgy said on Tuesday, adding that 275,000 people will receive the Synopharm sting this week.
‘Every vaccine available in Hungary is safe and can protect against viral infections. “This also applies to the Oriental vaccines, despite all the rumors against it,” Gyorgy said.
In Budapest, dr. Zoltan Komaromi began administering the Sinopharm vaccine on Wednesday, despite his personal concerns about the size of the test specimens and what he sees as pressure from senior government officials on Hungarian health authorities to approve the vaccine.
“There is uncertainty about politicians talking back and forth about the vaccines,” he said. “It seemed very bad to ordinary people that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister had actually asked the authorities to give official approval.”
Komaromi, who is also a health spokesperson for a Hungarian opposition party, received 55 doses of the vaccine on Wednesday and sent emails to his patients to inform them of all possible risks and side effects. Of the 120 patients he contacted, 22 said they would take the vaccine, and 75 refused.
The Hungarian government has accused opposition parties of promoting distrust in its vaccination program, particularly with regard to vaccines obtained outside the EU framework.
A steady decline in new coronavirus cases and deaths that began in late December reversed earlier this month, with the government stressing that vaccination is the only way to stem an apparent ‘third wave’ of the pandemic to repel. Hungary’s acquisition efforts have placed it first in the EU in the number of vaccine doses distributed per country per 100 inhabitants, according to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, an EU agency.
Hungary has agreed to buy 5 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine over the next four months, enough to vaccinate 2.5 million people with the country’s two-round shot of about 10 million. Successful administration will depend on the degree of public confidence in Chinese and Russian vaccines, which according to Komaromi have eroded after being approved in Hungary without being approved by the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s medicine regulator. , has been inspected.
“The patients feel it, they know, they follow the news and unfortunately we (doctors) have to overcome this feeling of resentment one by one,” he said.
As of Wednesday, 550,000 doses of Sinopharm have been delivered so far, compared to 774,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and smaller loads of vaccines from AstraZeneca, Moderna and Russian Sputnik V.
In Hong Kong’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview with public radio late last month that he would personally prefer to be vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine.
“I’m waiting for the Chinese vaccine, I rely on it the most,” Orban said. “I think the Chinese have known this virus the longest, and they probably know it best.”
Hajnalka Miklos, a retiree who received her first dose of Sinopharm vaccine on Wednesday, said she was relieved to be vaccinated so she could spend more time with her parents and grandchildren, and that she had no qualms about having the Chinese jab not to receive.
“I would like the Russian vaccine or Pfizer, but it’s coming, and I’m very happy,” she said.