Orbán: Brussels has “messed up” the procurement of coronavirus vaccines
Brussels has “messed up” the procurement of coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Sunday, adding that Hungary “would be in big trouble right now” had it not ordered more jabs from the East.
Whereas Israel is “nearly done” vaccinating its population and the United Kingdom has inoculated 30-40 percent of its people, the average vaccination rate in the European Union stands at 6.8 percent, the prime minister told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió.
“This is a clear indication that something is not right,” Orbán said.
“And this is not a political issue or accusation, nor any kind of antipathy towards EU or Brussels bureaucrats, but facts. This is how it is: they’ve messed up.”
These past weeks, the quantities of vaccine shipments ordered by the EU have either fluctuated or were not being delivered at all, he added.
Asked about plans by Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Latvia to convene an EU summit on the distribution of vaccines, Orbán said the Austrian chancellor was right to want to discuss the matter.
“Something’s not right,” he said, noting that member states had agreed that vaccines would be distributed proportionately, but it was not being done this way. “We’re seeing some countries get more and some less.”
Orbán said that had Hungary not ordered 3.5 million vaccines from China and Russia, with which it has now inoculated 500,000 people, “we’d be in big trouble right now.”
- The government wants the European Union to publish their vaccine contracts
- You can travel to these destinations without any restrictions if you already got the vaccine!
MTI also reported that foreign ministry state secretary Tamás Menczer on Saturday dismissed reports of “problems” experienced with China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine in the United Arab Emirates as “fake news”, saying the story was “the latest leftist and international political attack against the Chinese vaccine”.
In a Facebook post, Menczer cited unconfirmed reports of health authorities in the UAE administering a third dose of the Sinopharm jab to eight people after it was discovered that the two doses they had received had not generated enough antibodies.
He said there would always be vaccine recipients who do not develop a strong enough immune response to the jab they receive. “It has been roughly the same amount in the case of the Chinese vaccine as in those of the so-called Western vaccines,” the state secretary said.
“All they’re doing in the UAE now is giving these people another vaccine dose,” Menczer added.
He said some 6 million people in the country had been administered Sinopharm, adding that the jab had so far been shown to be 100 percent effective in preventing serious Covid-19 cases in Abu Dhabi, the capital.
“That’s a higher effectiveness rate when it comes to severe cases that what we’ve seen from Pfizer in Israel,” he said.
“In other words, there haven’t been any problems with the Chinese vaccine,” Menczer said. “The Chinese vaccine is saving lives in both the UAE and Hungary.”
9 Comments
The basic problem is that AstraZeneca overpromised and under delivered to the EU and relied on an obscure term in their contract – ‘best endeavours’ – to excuse their breach of contract. The failure of the EU was in not having a watertight contract with with AZ that should have included substantial penalties for non delivery of the quantities promised for Q1 and onwards. Let us not forget that the EU took a gamble with this company, buying the product before it was known to effective and paying in advance for it. If AZ had delivered as promised, this problem within the EU would not be so great. AZ is the real villain in this mess.
Interesting revelation by Anonymous.
Shakespeare did write in Henry 6, Part 2, Act 1V, Scene 4 – “The first thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers”.
There would not be a shortfall of Lawyers in the applicable area of the European Union, responsible for the drawing up of contractual agreements.
In the interest of ALL let it be hoped the situation can be corrected and progress made in the right direction and that supply is increased that enables greater increase to inoculate human beings by the use of this vaccine.
More idiotic comments from yet another ‘anonymous’ apologist for those idiots in Brussels.
Over this past year, the European Commission – and its (un)leashed retards – have demonstrated complete ineffectiveness in management of the greatest threat to Europe (and all citizens) since the time of Charlie Chaplain’s German impersonator in the 1930s and 1940s.
The E.C. is VERY GOOD at being ‘pernickety’ when it comes to nebulous concepts such as ‘rule of law’ [constantly parroted by ‘Dracula’s wife’ = ‘we’re over Jourava’ : RULE OF LAW, RULE OF LAW, RULE OF LAW, squawk !] or illegal actions [including mass migration by mainly Muslim no-hopers, supported by the likes of Charles Michel (a.k.a. Elmer Fudd = ‘wabbit season’ / ‘duck season’ / ‘migwant season’ / BANG) and Ilva Johansson (= ‘Sweden is really a very safe country and all that talk about rape, violence, murder & theft / destruction of communal / personal property is nothing but lies from those nasty people who don’t want any more migrants in Europe – by the way, the E.U. INSISTS that all countries open more zoos for such monkeys !!’).
HOWEVER, when it comes to protecting the REAL citizens of Europe (not some ‘wannabe Johnny-come-latelies’), the E.C. and its dozen or so ‘Presidents’ are totally USELESS.
So it should come as no surprise that the Greek psychologist in charge of Europe’s health care has / had no idea how to manage this terrible pandemic (she really should have stuck to chasing white mice around mazes !) whilst so-called ‘legal experts’ within the E.C.J. and other E.U.-based institutions are too busy trying to crucify Hungary and Poland (for insisting on their democratic rights and sovereignty) instead of performing something BASIC like writing contracts with drug companies (instead of the other way around – i.e. those companies drawing up the contracts) that PENALISE late- / non-delivery of PRE-PAID vaccines.
If this entire episode has taught the governments / citizens of Europe anything at all, then it MUST be that the E.U. bureaucracy (including its Commission and various mindless minions) wields far too much power – and control – within the Continent.
Unless the shift towards a Europe dominated by Brussels’-based bureaucracy is IMMEDIATELY STOPPED (and REVERSED), then there is little doubt that the entire ‘European Project’ will finally collapse in a giant mess.
In my humble opinion, such an outcome is long overdue.
Mario is 100% correct in his assessments of the European Commission and Brussels’ bureaucracy.
I agree whole-heartedly with EVERYTHING he has written !
Thank you Mario for writing such a SUPERB article.
It’s about time that someone put the E.C. and its unelected bureaucrats ‘on notice’.
Congratulations !
Comfortable agreement base in relation to Mario’s comments.
European Union is in a state of rubble which has been the case prior to February/March 2020.
What is being seen out of Brussels is a continual decline in its effectiveness for a better Europe, that will leave Europe, through the doings of the European Union in a destructive mess.
‘Mario’ (fake Mario)- thanks for the badly written essay, but the style, content and length make it immediately obvious that you are not the real Mario, but the troll that sometimes uses his name. There is a big river in Hungary called the Danube. Go visit the bottom of it.
TO ‘ANONYMOUS’ :
Paleontologists from a major Hungarian university recently did underwater surveys of the Danube where evidence of your ancestry from pre-historic slime was found.
Congratulations are extended to you on definitive scientific determination of your ‘family tree’.
Thank you very much, Anonymous. Indeed and thank God I am not that one Mario who took my name.
In my opinion, when it comes to health matters, it is better to be safe than sorry.
I believe the EMA is doing well with its policy of being cautious, since not all vaccines are the same. For example: I agree Sputnik should be approved if, as it seems, it is safe and effective, but Sinopharm vaccine is way too mysterious, the producing company did not disclose sufficient info on the side effects and third phase of experimentation; also, it seems as this vaccine requires repeated shots, not just one or two, in order to prove effective, and not even that effective. So the questions I would like to ask Mr. Orbân is: 1. before judging the EU so harshly could you explain why you paid a ridiculously enormous amount of our money, far more than the actual product’s market price, to buy vaccines which can harm people and that seem largely ineffective? 2. could you tell us all the details of all the stages of the purchase deal? Publish how much was paid and to whom? You want transparency from the EU, in that case show transparency too. 3. What happened to Astra, Pfizer, Moderna vaccines Hungary, like all EU states, received? Really all inoculated? Really so fast that the Sinopharm deal was so badly needed?
Back to the better safe than sorry, in my country we say: to rush things up, the pussycat gave birth to blind kittens….