Budapest Mayor Karácsony: Vaccine the only solution

The vaccine against the novel coronavirus is the only solution to the pandemic, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Wednesday, emphasising the need to build greater public trust in the vaccine.

As we wrote today, so far, some 598,000 people in Hungary have registered to be vaccinated against Covid-19, which is very low in Hungary with a population of almost 10 million. Details HERE.

Governments, local councils, scientists and doctors must all focus their efforts on boosting trust in the vaccine, Karácsony said. “And trust can only be built — or to be more precise, restored — through clear, straightforward and honest communication, by respecting and disseminating the facts, through cooperation and partnership,” he added.

The mayor also slammed the government for what he called “its harmful tampering with the data on the epidemic”. He said this had led to nearly one-third of Hungarians choosing not to get the Covid-19 vaccine over a lack of trust in the government.

Karácsony called it “pathetic” that the government on Wednesday omitted Budapest’s Covid-19 numbers from its report after he recently assessed the capital’s official figures.

“The ability to protect the country and save lives could depend on the restoration of trust,” Karácsony said.

He urged the government to publish every bit of relevant information it has on the epidemic, calling on it to set up a nationwide vaccination programme in cooperation with local councils.

Karácsony encouraged the public to trust the vaccine provided by the European Union and get themselves inoculated against Covid-19.

Read alsoThe epidemic’s mortality rate was half the Hungarian average in Budapest, says Mayor Karácsony

Source: MTI