Vaccination Campaign Underway in Hungary

Political parties, scientists, doctors and other experts are calling on Hungarians to get inoculated against the coronavirus in an effort to defeat a high rate of vaccine weariness among the population. The un-orchestrated campaign comes in response to statistics showing that many Hungarians do not want to get vaccinated either because they are afraid of the side effects of the vaccine, or because they have doubts over its effectiveness.

In recent weeks, many scientists, public figures, and leading politicians have started campaigning in Hungary to convince skeptics that the vaccines are safe and encourage everyone to get inoculated.

Political encouragement
Unsurprisingly, government politicians are regularly campaigning on social media and other forums to persuade people of the importance of vaccination. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has continuously emphasized that the vaccines are safe and necessary. A chorus of other Fidesz politicians has sent the same message, including András Aradszki, State Secretary for Energy Policy and a lawmaker of co-ruling KDNP. “Be very careful and cautious; this virus is no joke! I suggest that anyone who is able to should get vaccinated,” Aradszki, who spent 50 days in the hospital with coronavirus infection, said in an interview.
The main opposition parties have also been highlighting the importance of the vaccination. Centrist liberal Momentum, Hungary’s largest extra-parliamentary party, is the most active member of the opposition in promoting vaccination. Katalin Cseh, the party’s MEP and party member Gábor Kerpel-Fronius, deputy mayor of Budapest, have both heavily campaigned on social media to increase the public trust in the vaccines. András Fekete Győr, the party’s president, suggested that everyone who gets inoculated should receive HUF 100,000 from the state.
Green opposition party LMP began promoting inoculation actively by launching a vaccination campaign on its Facebook page weeks ago. The Socialists also emphasized the importance of vaccination. Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi highlighted on social media several times that once his turn comes, he will be vaccinated. Opposition Párbeszéd leader and Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony also called on residents to “trust the vaccine.” In a recent video posted on social media, Karácsony suggested that confidence in the vaccine had nothing to do with political affiliations. He urged people to “trust the vaccine against coronavirus, doctors and researchers, and volunteer for inoculation in the interest of protecting themselves and others. We have the weapon to stop the pandemic at hand and we cannot afford not to use it,” Karácsony said.

Message from the Academy of Sciences
Some fifty doctors of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) drew attention to the importance of coronavirus vaccination in a statement released in the first week of January. The MTA’s Department of Medical Sciences stressed that the spread of the epidemic can only be curbed with vaccination. According to the statement, any medical intervention has risks, but the risk of vaccinations is usually negligible compared to their effectiveness. Even though mild side effects such as local redness, inflammation, fever may occur, real side effects such as strong allergic reactions are extremely rare, the MTA statement said, adding that millions have already received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine globally without serious side effects. The President of the department, Veronika Ádám said in a radio interview that she believed fears about vaccination were unfounded. “This disease is not to be mixed with the common flu; it is a very serious disease which caused the death of more than 10,000 people in Hungary. The production of the vaccine involved an unparalleled worldwide collaboration. It accelerated the working process tremendously without any compromise to the scientific requirement,” she said.

Heavy toll
The epidemic has taken a heavy toll on Hungary as coronavirus-related fatalities surpassed 10,000 in early January. Deaths jumped in December following an explosion in contagion. Hungary has the third-highest number of deaths as a share of the population in the European Union, according to the rolling 14-day average reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on Dec. 30. Opposition politicians argue that the number of fatalities may be higher, citing significant discrepancies between reported virus-related fatalities and excess deaths in 2020 compared with previous years. Hungary had the highest number of monthly deaths in November in more than 20 years, with fatalities rising 52% from a year-ago, according to the Hungarian statistics office.