Hungary approved the Chinese vaccine without examination – end of lockdown to be in May?
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Thanks to a government decree, on Friday, Hungary became the first EU member state to approve the vaccine of the Chinese Sinopharm. With the help of this, based on some calculations, the restrictions might end in May. However, the Hungarian Medical Chamber did not support the government’s decision allowing the Chinese vaccine without proper examination done by the European or Hungarian health authorities. Details below.
Based on hvg.hu, the government issued a decree on Thursday night saying that all vaccines administered to at least a million people anywhere in the world can get emergency approval in Hungary. Since that is true for the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition gave its approval on Friday. There are already
twenty million people who received the state-owned pharmaceutical company’s product.
That number includes 300 thousand Serbian citizens.
In his regular Friday morning interview, PM Viktor Orbán said that “he put his faith in the Chinese vaccine since China has been handling the virus longer than any other country and understood it the most.” That is not the first time that Hungary acts differently to other EU countries. Last week, Budapest issued a provisional license for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Brussels said that this act was improper but not illegal since the member states agreed to cooperate in purchasing mRNA vaccines from Western companies.