Hungary scraps type of COVID-19 vaccine from certificates
The paragraph stipulating that the type of the vaccine must be included in the immunity certificate was removed also from the related app.
The cabinet announced on Thursday that people that have gained immunity against COVID-19 either via vaccination or infection will be receiving their certificates from 1 March.
As per the new regulation, however, the certificates will not include information about the type of vaccine, i.e. the bearers will not be able to verify if they got a European, US, Russian or Chinese vaccine. This could be highly problematic later on when travel to specific countries are most likely to be conditional to vaccination or immunity verifying documents, and not all of the vaccines will be accepted.
Poland, for instance, has announced earlier this week that as of Saturday, a 10-day quarantine is compulsory for those crossing the border from Czechia or Slovakia unless then present a negative coronavirus test or a certificate testifying that they have been inoculated with any vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm vaccines have not been authorised for use by the EMA, and the approval process in Hungary was rather problematic too. The first step in the process is a "continuous review" of data and clinical trials. A formal application for a one-year conditional marketing authorisation must follow afterward.
The EMA insists that Sputnik V has not even started the continuous review phase yet and has indicated that it so far hasn't received any applications for continuing review or marketing authorisation for the vaccine, "despite reports to the contrary", it said in a "clarification" on 10 February.
"We still wonder why Russia is offering theoretically millions of millions of doses while not sufficiently progressing in vaccinating their own people," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on 17 February.
"This is also a question I think that should be answered," she added.
Neither the Russian vaccine nor its Chinese counterpart have so far reached out to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for market authorisation.
The question about this new secrecy from the Hungarian government’s part is why did it go to great length to procure the Russian and Chinese vaccines, and then put pressure on authorities to green-light their use if it has to be concealed what type of vaccine Hungarian citizens get. Not only suspicion is raised, but also the already low trust in these vaccines could take another hit. Not to mention the chaos this secrecy will create for any subsequent analyses of long-term vaccine effects and statistical data bases. Poland restricting the acceptance of non-EMU-approved vaccines was likely aimed at Hungary, and this might be Budapest’s answer to that. (Note that only Hungary uses Russian and Chinese vaccines in the whole of Europe.) It will be interesting to see how the Polish brothers will welcome Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán when he is invited over there, given that he has just received his Chinese COVID-19 jab on Sunday. If legislation does not change by then, he should pack a bit more than just his toothbrush, because he’s going into a ten-day quarantine.
Cover photo: Shutterstock
