Economy 10 September 2021, 10:25am

We don't need no vaccination, we don't need no thought control

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Fun Fact: more third doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Hungary over the past 38 days than first and second doses combined. The difference between 1st and 3rd doses is more than 100%.

You might say that the answer to this strange phenomenon is simple: people that got vaccinated before keep track of the current events, and as they remain convinced of the importance of vaccines they go and get their third dose.

This might not be accurate, though.

More than 5.5 million Hungarians are currently fully vaccinated. More than 2.5 million of them received their second dose more than four months ago, while only 20% of them have decided they needed a third dose. "Not great, not terrible", as a person who subsequently became rather famous once said in Chernobyl.

There are also 2.5 million adults in Hungary that have not received a single dose, and less than 10% of these people have decided it might not be such a bad idea to get vaccinated.

Also note that more than half of those that have recieved their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine over the last 38 days are under 18 years of age. It's a fair to imply that these adolescents live in families that are in favour of vaccination. Some of those that got their 2nd dose are also in the 12-17 age group. In view of this, we can state that

there are five times as many Hungarians asking for a third dose than for a first one.

When it comes to the inoculation of school children, official data show that more than 60% of them have not received a single dose. And if we look at ECDC data, the situation might even be worse.

Hungary has about 10 million doses (!) of vaccines in storage. What should we do with those? What about giving them as a gift to ethnic Hungarians in the neighbouring countries? It’s a fine idea, with a tiny problem. In regions where these ethnic Hungarians reside people are even less inclined to get vaccinated. Alrighty then, let’s seek another target for our vaccine generosity. Russia? China? Yeah, nah. We should just chuck them out.

We have enough vaccines for the next 50 years and what do we do? You'll never guess what we are building. Yup, a vaccine plant. We could sell these obviously redundant piles of COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries that could actually pay for them. Problem is, they don't want them. They bought them cheaper than Hungary, and they also have quite a massive quantity 'gathering dust' in storages.

We booed and hissed when Russia’s Sputnik V became available. Then we said we don’t need that Chinese concoction, that Szechuan sauce. We want Western vaccines instead, ‘cause we deserve those! It turns out we don’t need vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen, either. We don’t need the Western crap, either. We’re a proud and brave nation. Maybe we’ll obliterate this pandemic with bows and arrows, while riding from horseback. Maybe the virus abhors horses and will flee into oblivion screaming. Or it won't. (Article and charts in collaboration with Balázs Pártos.)

Alright, that's enough. Let the charts speak now.