Coronavirus – Medical chamber: Russian vaccine ‘modern’, Chinese vaccine ‘not bad’

Gyula Kincses, the head of the Hungarian Medical Chamber, called the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus “modern”, which could be licenced in Hungary, and said that China’s Sinopharm vaccine was “not bad”, but added that he did not have enough information concerning the latter product, daily Magyar Nemzet said online on Saturday.

Eearlier in the week, however, Kincses had not recommended the two vaccines for use citing a lack of documentation, the paper said. Speaking on commercial ATV on Friday, Kincses said he had not sought to create mistrust with the eastern vaccines, but insisted that vaccines should only be administered “with no concern” if they had their “instructions for use”. He said that the chamber had been promised further documentation before the two vaccines would be applied in Hungary.

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Concerning allegations that the government was pushing health authorities to grant licences for some vaccines, Kincses said “the only good vaccine is which has been administered” and argued that “each shot will save many more lives than it risks”.

“Risks of political influencing are dwarfed by the risks of Covid”,

he added.

Earlier that day the head of the National Medicines and Food Health Institute (OGYÉI) told public television M1 that the Russian coronavirus vaccine is “reliable and safe”. He added that

application of the vaccine in Hungary could start “as early as next week”.

Source: MTI