Hungary becomes first European nation to use China's Sinopharm vaccine

Hungary, on February 24, became the first country in Europe to administer a vaccine developed in China as health officials in the country began rolling out Sinopharm jabs. In an effort to bolster mass immunity in the country, Hungarian health authorities have approved a total of five vaccine candidates-Pfizer/BioOTech, Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik and Sinopharm. However, with scepticism growing around vaccines manufactured in the East, health workers are finding it difficult to bolster trust in people.

“I ask for all fears to be dispelled about the Chinese and Russian vaccines, because more than 30 million people have received these vaccines without any particular problems,” Hungary''s chief medical officer, Cecilia Muller, said at a virtual media briefing on Wednesday.

As per the latest tally by John Hopkins University, Hungary a total of 410,129 cases and 14,552 fatalities has been reported till now. The country has sharply criticised the speed of the EU's vaccine procurement program and sought to purchase doses from countries like China and Russia despite polling that shows trust in those vaccines is low among Hungarians. However, health officials, who aim to administer the vaccine on 275,000 people this week, have said that the Sinopharm vaccine would give a sharp boost to the vaccination drive.

About China's Sinopharm vaccine

In late December, Chinese regulators approved the first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a state-controlled company. The approval came a day after Sinopharm said that its COVID-19 vaccine is 79.34% effective and cited interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials. The Chinese drugmaker also said that the company has filed an application with the regulators to allow the vaccine for a broad roll-out which has now been granted conditional approval by the government. 

Read:  China Conditionally Approves Sinopharm Vaccine

Read: China Grants Conditional Approval To Sinopharm's COVID-19 Vaccine With 79% Efficacy

China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine is comparatively less effective than the ones developed by Pfizer-AstraZeneca and Moderna that have shown an efficacy rate of nearly 95%. Meanwhile, Russia has also said that its Sputnik V is 91% efficient against the highly-infectious disease. Sinopharm vaccine's efficacy is lower than the 86% announced by the  United Arab Emirates for the same vaccine on December 9. Other countries which have approved Sinopharm vaccine candidates include Zimbabwe, Iraq amongst others. 

Read: Zimbabwe Receives First Vaccines From Sinopharm In China

Read:  Iraq Approves Sinopharm, AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines For Emergency Use Against COVID-19