Tamás Menczer, secretary of state for information and international representation of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, analyzed the economic benefits of the rapid procurement of oriental vaccines in a video shared on his Facebook page.
“The Hungarian economy suffered a daily loss of 10 billion to 15 billion forints (€28 million to €41.7 million) after restrictive coronavirus measures were enacted. The 4 million people vaccinated would have reached one and a half months later without the Eastern vaccines,” Menczer said. He added that “during this month and a half, the Hungarian economy would have suffered a loss of more than 550 billion forints.”
“This amount, or at least a significant portion of it, has been saved thanks to oriental vaccines. In other words, the acquisition of the Russian and Chinese vaccines saved lives in addition to restarting the economy, and was also a good decision from an economic point of view,” he said.
Hungary was the first and is still the only member state of the European Union whose public health authorities gave emergency approval for the use of the Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines. As a result, Hungary’s inoculation rate is well above the EU average. According to the latest, May 3 statistics, Hungary’s inoculation rate stands at 41.69 percent, second only to Malta with 45.32 percent. The closest countries to Hungary are well behind, as it is followed by Finland (30.73 percent), Germany (28.25) and Belgium (26.59). The EU inoculation average is 24.62 percent.
Title image: A Hungarian nurse prepares a Chinese made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday Feb. 24, 2021. Hungary on Wednesday became the first country in the European Union to begin using a COVID-19 vaccine produced in China, and expects to inoculate up to 275,000 people with the vaccine by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh)
