Shady business around the Sinopharm vaccines in Hungary?

Miskolc,Hungary. Photo: MTI

There has been news circulating the internet on news agencies that there might be some shady business hiding behind the acquisition of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines by a Hungarian firm. It seems that WHO’s latest report does leave room for worry about the exact effectiveness of the Chinese vaccines themselves.

According to Válaszonline – who have previously reported about the topic – István Tényi, formerly a member of the currently governing Fidesz party, has filed a report to the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of criminal misconduct. The company that executed the shipping of the Chinese vaccines to Hungary, namely the Danubia Pharma LLC, has an obscure ownership structure, and according to Tényi and the news agency’s point of view,

there should not have been any payment to a company without proper transparency from the central budget under the Fundamental Law of Hungary.

It is unclear to the general public who might profit from the shipment deal, but Válaszonline uncovered some information about the possibility regarding the people behind the company. They wrote that the Danubia Pharma LLC is currently under the ownership of Syndonite Med PLC, which seems to be owned by two stooges.

The portal believes that the person behind the deal might be Márk Szeverényi, the brother-in-law of László Szabó, who currently is in a leading position in the NER-media holding.

After a short while, Tényi has received an answer to the report he filed on suspicion of criminal misconduct from the Anti-corruption Department of the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation. The letter stated that a similar report had already been issued and hence the second report did not add anything to the prior in terms of charges or evidence, Tényi’s report became null and void. Still, he received information that the previous, similar report was rejected.

This leaves the investigation at a stalemate and whether there is anything shady behind the shipping of the vaccines remains unknown.

However, concerning the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, there has been another development on the WHO’s side this time. The organisation found that the efficiency of the vaccine may not be as good as previously thought – Válaszonline reported.

According to WHO’s founding, the vaccine is efficient at protecting people between 18-59 who have no underlying condition, but the organisation is unsure about its efficiency of doing the same for healthy people over 60, or people between 18-59 with any underlying condition.

The more worrying thing is that WHO said there is no evidence of the Sinopharm vaccine protecting against acute forms of the coronavirus, variants of the virus, and whether it is entirely safe for the elderly and people with underlying conditions.

In one of the most recent announcements, Cecília Müller, the National Chief Medical Officer has reacted to the findings of WHO. She said that the current form of WHO’s document has only summarised the current scientific data and that the organisation’s full-fledged recommendation is to be expected only by the end of the week. She also mentioned that

people between 16-18 years old can register for the vaccination, as well as foreigners living in Hungary and Hungarians with citizenship living abroad can also do that, Népszava reported.

She also mentioned that the vaccination with the Janssen vaccines will also start and that a large batch of Pfizer vaccines had arrived with which they are going to vaccinate 16-18-year-olds. The current number of vaccinated people in Hungary is 4.1 million, with 4.7 million people registered.