Hungary on Friday began injecting the Russian Sputnik V vaccine into citizens, becoming the first country in the European Union to administer a coronavirus vaccine yet to be tested and approved by the bloc’s regulators.
As Hungary’s economy suffers and a national election threatens next year, the adoption of such vaccines is part of the government’s strategy to make everything in the fight against the coronavirus, after a series of mistakes caused it to spread in Hungary.
The decision by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, to proceed with the ambitious vaccination plan comes after the European Union’s own response to the spread of vaccines lagged behind the United States, Israel and Britain.
Mr. Orban has few options for reviving the Hungarian economy, as he is opposed to distributing meaningful aid to citizens and businesses, and seems to have great promise of having the whole country vaccinated, with a view to next year ‘s election.
“We have repelled the utter temptation to return to an aid-based economy during the crisis,” he said. Orban said at the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week. ‘Many have said that aid should be distributed during a crisis. It may be appropriate under certain circumstances in some countries. I do not see Hungary as one of these countries. ”
But his embrace of vaccines that still need EU approval – Sputnik V, as well as a Chinese-manufactured Sinopharm that is expected to be rolled out in the near future – also provided the opportunity to score political points against what mr. Orban is considered a presumptuous and ineffective European Union in the run – up to the 2022 election.
“My opinion is that what I need, and what the Hungarian people need, is not a declaration, but a vaccine. If it does not come from Brussels, it must come from elsewhere,” he said. Orban said in January. ‘It cannot be that Hungarian people are dying because the procurement of vaccines in Brussels is slow. This is simply unacceptable. ”
Mr. Orban was at odds with the European Union over Hungary’s harsh policies regarding the treatment of migrants, which are considered illegal by the European Court of Justice, as well as issues such as the rule of law, corruption and media freedom.
Critics argue that Mr Orban is undermining the bloc’s joint vaccination program, which coordinates orders and distribution, with vaccines that have not been approved in the European Union.
“Orban uses the vaccine to play an ominous political game to weaken the bloc,” said Andrzej Halicki, a Polish member of the European Parliament.
“Russia is using a dumping tactic to enter the European market and offer the Hungarians a lower price for their vaccine, and Orban is trying to destroy the general vaccination strategy under the pretext of this lower price,” he said.
For the time being, the European Commission, the EU’s executive, has avoided directly criticizing Orban’s approach.
“If a member state wants to enter into contracts with companies that are not covered by our vaccine strategy, they have the right to do so,” commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said on Wednesday.
But, he said, Hungary would also be liable for the use of unapproved vaccines. “It differs from the EMA authorization, where the manufacturer remains liable,” he said, referring to the European Medicines Agency, the EU regulator.
While many EU members have expressed frustration over the bloc’s sluggish procurement procedures, Hungary is so far the only one deviating from the collective strategy.
Neither the Russian nor the Chinese producers have applied to the European Medicines Agency for an ongoing review or marketing authorization. But Russian scientists have sought formal scientific advice from the EU regulator, a move seen as a precursor to gathering the relevant data and documentation to request a review.
Sputnik V only received its first peer-reviewed feedback in the scientific publication The Lancet this month, which indicated that it is safe and effective. The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for use in China, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, but the company has not yet published detailed results of its Phase 3 trial.
Other EU countries have started considering Sputnik V since receiving its positive review in The Lancet, say EU officials, and this could help its authorization by the bloc. Despite his complaints about the delays in the mobilization of vaccines by the European Union, which only became clear in December, the strategy of Mr. Orban already made clear in November, when his foreign minister announced that the government was in talks with Russia over imports and possible manufacturing, Sputnik V.
Peter Kreko, the director of Political Capital, a research institute in Budapest, said that Mr. Orban is now motivated by a desire to appear faster and more efficiently than the European Union.
Although there is a strong desire to get the economy going again, Mr. Kreko said the prime minister is also restoring the image caused by the administrative handling of the pandemic and Hungary’s high death rates.
Dr Ferenc Falus, former medical chief of Hungary, said the response to public health was flawed at several levels. From the beginning of the pandemic, he said, systemic problems with contact detection made it completely ineffective. A failure to offer free mass tests has contributed to a skewed understanding of the prevalence of the virus, he said.
The relaxation of restrictions between August and November, dr. Falus said, “was a big mistake because it resulted in the incredibly high increase in deaths.”
According to a database of the New York Times, Hungary has registered 383,735 cases of the coronavirus, with 13,543 deaths, although experts believe that the number of deaths associated with the virus is much higher.
While Mr. Orban and his government have taken advantage of the Russian and Chinese vaccines, many Hungarians are still wary of the shots, Mr. Kreko said.
He quoted a recent survey by the Hungarian medical median showing that twice as many Hungarian Western vaccines would choose over Sputnik, and three times as many as Sinopharm.
He said waiting for these vaccines to be approved by the European Medicines Agency could increase the public’s openness to their use.
“It will not fit into Orban’s strategy because he wants to show how slow and incompetent Brussels is while the Hungarian government is doing much better,” he said.
The Hungarian Chamber of Physicians, a leading association of physicians, has urged the government and local regulators to approve vaccines only after they are transparent according to the rules of medical safety and testing in accordance with European standards for medicines.
Like other countries in the European Union, Hungary’s economy has been hit by barriers after the coronavirus spread rapidly in the spring, with its services sector particularly hard hit.
“About the same thing happened everywhere,” said Gergely Tardos, chief economist at OTP Bank. “Hungary was more or less happy because the industry declined in the third quarter, but that was not true for tourism, restaurants and many services.”
The worst hit are those in the sector who work out the books, as is typical in Hungary, especially in small businesses, hospitality and tourism.
Addressing the illegal and semi-illegal employment of such individuals is a political ground mine, said Zoltan Pogatsa, an economist at the University of Sopron.
Hospitality and tourism make up about 10 percent of Hungary’s economy and workforce, he said, and those working informally would not be eligible for unemployment benefits, which are low by EU standards and the shortest in the bloc.
Monika Pronczuk reported from Brussels.