Orban Blamed EU for Disrupting Coronavirus Vaccine Supplies

The Hungarian prime minister said that "he is forced to look for vaccines where they are available - in China and Russia." He also recalled the merits of the Soviet vaccine that eradicated polio. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban explained the need to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in his country by the fact that the European Commission cannot ensure the supply of citizens with alternative vaccines registered in the European Union. "There is no western and eastern vaccine, there is only good and bad," he said in an interview with Bild on Wednesday, March 3. According to him, the European Union failed to cope with the task of "quickly and efficiently" supplying the Europeans with the vaccine. "Therefore, I must, in accordance with the constitution, take responsibility for myself," Orban said. He noted that countries such as Great Britain, the USA, Israel, Serbia are far ahead of the EU countries in the supply of vaccines, so he is looking for "vaccines where they are, including in Russia and China." The Hungarian prime minister also emphasized the merits of Eastern European preventive medicine and said that "thanks to the Soviet vaccine, poliomyelitis was eradicated here much faster than in the West." Hungary has already started using the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Orban himself, however, was vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm. Hungary has ordered 5 million doses of Sinopharm and 2 million doses of the Russian “Sputnic”.