Democracy Digest: Vaccination Programs Slow, Erratic and Scandal-Prone

Currently, Hungary has enough vaccines for just 35,000 people, but according to the government it has secured 17 million doses overall, 4.4 million of that from the first-approved vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was boasting on his Sunday radio interview that this is in fact a "Hungarian vaccine", since it is based on research done by the Hungarian-born Katalin Kariko, who left for the US in 1985. Orban added that he was not happy with the (slow) pace of vaccination, but said it would be unfair to blame Brussels for it, as supply largely depends on the pharmaceutical companies.

He also reiterated that Hungary is negotiating to obtain vaccines from the East, primarily from China. "Ideally, Hungarians will be able to choose to be vaccinated with Western or Chinese vaccines," he said.

Hungary is not particularly an 'anti-vax' country, but there is a palpable level of resistance in society towards non-Western vaccines. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto tried to argue that "we were all inoculated with Russian vaccines in our childhood", but this has done little to raise confidence in Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

In a poll conducted in early December by the Central Statistical Office, only 15 per cent of the population said they were planning to get vaccinated, another 21 per cent were contemplating the idea, while 36 per cent said they would not do so. Most people indicated they were concerned about the safety and potential side-effects of vaccines developed so quickly.

The stakes are pretty high. If you undermine the willingness of people to vaccinate themselves, [Orban] could suffer the political consequences.

- Peter Kreko, executive director of Political...