BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Doctors in Hungary began administering a COVID-19 vaccine developed in China on Wednesday, making the country the first European Union country to use a Chinese shot, as officials aim to to strengthen confidence in its safety and effectiveness.
General practitioners in the Central European country were instructed to administer the injections, developed by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, to elderly patients. The Sinopharm shot brings the number of vaccines currently in use in Hungary to five, including the Russian-developed Sputnik V, more than any other country in the EU with 27 countries.
But in order to take full advantage of the country’s extensive range of vaccines, officials are seeking to increase lagging public confidence in vaccines produced in Eastern countries.
“I ask for all fears about the Chinese and Russian vaccines to be allayed as more than 30 million people have received these vaccines without any specific problems,” Cecilia Muller, Hungary’s chief medical officer, said during a virtual media briefing on Wednesday.
The Hungarian government has sharply criticized the speed of the EU vaccine procurement program and tried to buy doses from countries like China and Russia, despite polls showing that confidence in those vaccines is low among Hungarians.
A survey of 1,000 people in the capital Budapest by pollster Median and the 21 Research Center showed that among those willing to get vaccinated, only 27% would take a Chinese vaccine and 43% a Russian vaccine, compared to 84% who take a vaccine. jab developed in western countries. The survey, conducted at the end of January, had a plus or minus 3% margin of error.
Still, Hungarian officials expect the Sinopharm vaccine, which received final approval last week, will greatly boost the country’s vaccination coverage: as many as 368,000 people could be vaccinated this week alone, compared to 471,000 who have been injected since the vaccinations . began in December, Secretary of State Dr. Istvan Gyorgy Tuesday, adding that 275,000 people will receive the Sinopharm shot this week.
“Every vaccine available in Hungary is safe and can protect against viral infections. This also applies to the Eastern vaccines, despite all the rumors to the contrary, ”Gyorgy said.
In Budapest, Dr. Zoltan Komaromi on Wednesday administering the Sinopharm vaccine, despite his personal concerns about the size of the test samples and what he viewed as pressure from senior government officials on Hungarian health authorities to approve the vaccine.
“There is uncertainty as politicians talk back and forth about the vaccines,” he said. “It looked very bad for ordinary people that the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister were effectively calling on 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 with information about 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 stirring up suspicion of its vaccination program, especially with regard to the vaccines bought outside the EU framework.
A steady decline in the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths that began in late December turned off course early this month, and the government has stressed that speeding up vaccinations is the only way to stem an apparent “third wave” of the pandemic. to prevent. According to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, an EU agency, Hungary ranks first in the EU in terms of the number of vaccine doses distributed to the country per 100 inhabitants, thanks to its purchasing efforts.
Hungary has agreed to purchase 5 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine over the next four months, enough to inoculate 2.5 million people with the two-round injection in the country of about 10 million. Successfully administering that amount will depend on public confidence in Chinese and Russian vaccines, which Komaromi said has been eroded after being approved in Hungary without being inspected by the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drug regulator.
“The patients feel this, they know it, they follow the news and unfortunately we (doctors) have to overcome this sense of resentment in them one by one,” he said.
On Wednesday, 550,000 doses of Sinopharm had been delivered so far, compared to 774,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and smaller shipments of vaccines from AstraZeneca, Moderna and Russia’s Sputnik V.
In an interview with public radio late last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would personally choose to be vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine.
“I’m waiting for the Chinese vaccine, that’s what I trust most,” said Orban. “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 have been vaccinated so she could spend more time with her parents and grandchildren, and that she had no reservations about receiving the Chinese shot. .
“I would have liked the Russian vaccine, or Pfizer, but this came, and I am very happy,” she said.