Hungary offers to vaccinate foreign diplomats working in the country

The vaccination of diplomats working abroad is a difficult and complicated issue to be solved by all nation’s governing bodies. The Hungarian government has offered to inoculate all foreign diplomats working in the country. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the information acquired by index.hu, on the vaccination of foreign diplomats in Hungary by Hungary. The Ministry also added that Hungarian diplomats concluding services in another country will as well receive their doses from the host country. Naturally, Hungary has also offered to inoculate all foreign diplomats working on its territory. Index asked which type or types of vaccines diplomats will be inoculated with, but no information was given on the question. However, according to their sources, Hungarian officials in many countries will receive the Chinese vaccine.
Probably Hungary will also use its stock of Sinopharm to vaccinate foreign representatives, as further doses arrived on Wednesday. 

“The safety of foreign representations operating in certain countries, together with all their personnel, is the responsibility of the host country.

Because of this, and because of impeding the spread of the coronavirus, of course – based on international treaties – the host nation is responsible for the vaccination of all those working in the consulate. In the case of diplomatic representations accredited to Hungary, the vaccination will take place according to the Hungarian system, with the available and authorised vaccines.”, answered the Ministry.

Index has reached out to several diplomats to try to find out more. They all said that the vaccination process has proved to be one of the most exciting professional challenges of the pandemic. On the one hand,

ensuring the vaccine and medical personnel in the host country or, on the contrary, flying everyone home to be inoculated would have been both very costly solutions.

On the other hand, the vaccination of Hungarian diplomats can take several months or even a year, depending on the host country.

“It is an interesting question primarily from the point of view of those working very far away, in third world countries. In their case, the costs of travelling home are very high; meanwhile, in many countries, the process of vaccination has not even started yet”, commented a diplomat working in an EU country.

An employee working in the Foreign Ministry in India was also asked. He said that the Indian government contacted them on the matter back in January, for which they all registered for the vaccine. However, there has been no news ever since; they are still waiting for their turn. Although he added that India had successfully managed the epidemic, its big cities are safe, and people live their days relatively freely.

Probably the Pfizer vaccine will be used in the South-Asian country, while delegates working in Arabic countries will receive the Chinese vaccine, writes index.

This system might seem obvious, accessible and fair; however, not all countries are completely satisfied.

The United States’ prestige, as the world’s wealthiest country, was hurt when 13 countries offered to inoculate American diplomats delegated to their territory from their own supplies.

It was also quite problematic, mainly from a political point of view, when some State Department personnel working in Russia appealed to Moscow for doses of its Sputnik V vaccine after the US could not promise the delivery of their American-made vaccines in the near future, due to a shortage in stock.

Source: index.hu