The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has called on the government to withdraw its guidelines on coronavirus vaccine booster shots, insisting that it was motivated by party politics rather than heeding professional recommendations. Cecília Müller, the chief medical officer, said on Tuesday that the guidelines recommended a different booster jab from the original vaccine. Thus, those who received two doses of a vector vaccine earlier should now get an inactivated vaccine or one based on mRNA technology, to achieve a stronger immune response, she said.
DK spokesman Balázs Barkóczi told a press conference on Wednesday that “booster shots have become important to the government because its favourite, the Chinese [Sinopharm] vaccine, turned out to be insufficiently effective.” Recommending earlier recipients of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to now accept “the Chinese vaccine” or AstraZeneca shows that “the government has learnt nothing from the Chinese vaccine’s failure,” he said.
“Who will take responsibility if it turns out that people with two Pfizer jabs shouldn’t have received a Chinese vaccine?” Barkóczi said.