Economy 29 January 2021, 4:32pm

Hungarians wary of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine after fishy approval

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Mistrust in Chinese and Russian COVID-19 vaccines is huge in Hungary. Only 35% of those willing to be vaccinated at all would pick Russia's Sputnik V and 27% would opt for a Chinese jab. The issue has been politicized to such an extent that the differences in the willingness to get vaccinated varies according to party preferences, as well. How stupid is that?

A survey by Publicus Institute conducted with a sample of over 1,000 on an assignment by daily newspaper Népszava found that six out of ten respondents were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they were able to pick the producer. In November 2020, four out of ten people gave the same response to this question.

Nine out of ten (91%) of those wanting to get their COVID-19 jab said they would choose Pfizer's vaccine, while 77% (practically 8 out of 10) would pick Moderna's vaccine.

Mistrust in eastern producer's vaccines is a lot greater. Only 35% of those that would like to get vaccinated would accept Russia's Sputnik V and merely 27% would accept a Chinese vaccine. 55% said no to the Russian and a whopping 63% rejected Sinopharm's vaccine.

The National Medicines and Food Health Institute (OGYEI) has just granted a licence for the Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to be used in Hungary, after the modification of government decree 488/2020.

In the Official Gazette published late on Thursday, this decree was amended and now in effect allows authorities to approve new vaccines by circumventing the OGYÉI experts’ testing.

In addition to vaccines authorised in the European Economic Area and in the UK, the government now also accepts vaccines that have been approved by at least three countries, one of which must be a EU member state or candidate, and have been used on at least one million people.

Whether a vaccine has been given to at least one million people will be judged by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.

The acceptance of the different vaccines vary according to political party preferences, as well. Most of those supporting Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party (55%), i.e. those that do not reject COVID-19 vaccines, would accept even a Russian shot. Only 22% of those that support opposition parties and said were willing to get vaccinated would accept Sputnik V jabs.

The Central Statistical Office (KSH) has also published the results of a vaccination willingness survey today, which shows a similar picture.