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GULYÁS SLAMS EMA FOR SLUGGISH APPROVALS

 

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás slammed the European Medicines Agency for slow licencing, and said that Hungary’s authorities had already granted a licence to the AstraZeneca vaccine. “If the European authority followed suit, vaccination [in Hungary] could start.” Gulyás also noted that a Russian vaccine had also been granted a preliminary licence to be applied in Hungary, adding that Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was discussing the subject in Moscow. Vaccine supplies to the EU are “clearly insufficient”, Gulyás said, noting that mass vaccination was already under way in Israel, the US, the UK and in several Arab countries. Hungary cannot ease its coronavirus-related restrictions as long as there is no significant drop in the number of new cases, Gulyás said, adding however that the spread of the virus was slowing down and the number of fatalities was also decreasing, contrary to a large part of the region where a third wave of the pandemic had hit.
Gulyás said that people to be inoculated would be asked which vaccine they preferred, but added that if the preferred product was not available the client would have to wait until it was purchased. He said reports of unused vaccines being dumped were “fake news”. “This could not happen and it would have serious consequences if it did,” he said, adding that doctors must not disregard the official vaccination schedule.
Concerning Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, Gulyás said that “Russia seems to have resolved issues around a lack of production capacities” and will be able to produce the vaccine in large quantities. Concerning the Chinese vaccine, he said the government has signed a deal aimed at unlocking the “immediate supply” of one million doses, but added that licensing by Hungarian authorities is still pending. Gulyás said patients would not be offered an opportunity to reserve dates for inoculation with their GPs, saying that “an appropriate schedule cannot be followed unless there is a central registry”.
Residents will be provided a plastic card certifying that they have been inoculated or they have recovered from Covid-19, starting probably in mid-February, Gulyás said, adding that once a sufficient number of people were vaccinated restrictions could be lifted.
Gulyás was asked about leftist criticism of the government pressuring the health authorities to licence the Russian and Chinese vaccines in Hungary, in light of the Austrian, Danish, and Greek governments calling on the European Medicines Agency to grant a licence to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. He said the government would not pressure any authority to disregard professional protocols. At the same time, the licencing process must be accelerated because “thousands are dying … people who would not die had they been inoculated”, he added.
Answering a question about whether Hungary would meet the European target of vaccinating 80% of people above the age of 80, as well as health and welfare employees, by March, and 70% of the adult population by the summer, Gulyás said that in light of delays in vaccine supplies from the EU, this could only be achieved if alternative sources of supply were involved. Gulyás said that Pfizer could not be sanctioned for temporarily supplying smaller amounts of its vaccine under effective agreements.
Responding to another question, Gulyás said that no government member had so far been inoculated because “any deviation from the vaccination plan would only be possible by changing the rules”.
Asked about the suggestion by health experts that the Chinese vaccine should only be used if licenced by the EU, he said: “Hungary has its own authorities, and the government does not think that a licence by the European authority carries any greater credibility”.