Published 13:07 IST, December 13th 2021

Hungary's media, health experts seek more COVID-19 data

Hungary's media, health experts seek more COVID-19 data

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As coronavirus infections and deaths soar in Hungary, country's journalists and public health professionals are demanding more detailed data on outbreak from government, with some experts saying that greater transparency might boost lagging vaccination rates.

Information is often hard to find in country of over 9 million people, where infection rates have broken records and daily deaths per capita are among highest in world.

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Although Hungary has secured vaccine doses from China and Russia in dition to those provided by European Union, nearly a third of its ults still have not received a single shot. That hesitancy is something immunologist Andras Falus said can be partly attributed to official communications about pandemic being "extremely poor, inconsistent and totally incapable of maintaining trust."

"A significant proportion of population no longer believes when y receive real data, or resign mselves to not paying attention to data because y feel almost viscerally that it is inconsistent and unreliable,” said Falus, professor emeritus at Semmelweis University in Budapest.

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On Friday, government's official coronavirus website reported 166 daily deaths, 6,884 new infections and 6,939 virus patients being treated in hospitals, 573 of whom were on ventilators.

While governments in many countries like U.S. and ors in EU publish detailed online dashboards showing pandemic trends through interactive maps, graphs and or data, Hungary’s website features neir geographic breakdowns of data nor visualizations showing rises or drops in indicators.

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Illes Szurovecz of Hungarian news website 444.hu says information released by conservative government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban does not provide a clear picture of how outbreak is developing and that it is opaque and difficult to follow.

“re’s a lot we don’t know,” Szurovecz said. “If re was more detailed data, people would be better able to judge how severe pandemic is and how dangerous virus is. ... Doctors from different parts of country would be better able to compare ir results and care could be improved.”

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In lieu of more comprehensive data from official channels, Szurovecz and his colleagues track what few numbers government releases and create detailed data visualizations on trends in pandemic. Without that, he said, “it would be virtually impossible to look back in Hungary today and see how pandemic has gone.”

Lacking official information on how hospitals are faring, many journalists have tried to report from inside COVID-19 wards to get a clearer picture.

But Hungary’s government has barred journalists from entering medical facilities to report on pandemic and prohibited medical staff from giving interviews, something journalists say has me it impossible to report on worsening conditions , creating a false picture of situation’s severity.

Experts and journalists have requested regional and municipal breakdowns of infections, deaths and vaccination rates, along with information from individual hospitals on how many patients are in ICUs and how many have been vaccinated and with which vaccines.

That kind of information could be used to formulate localized responses to outbreaks and determine where vaccination campaigns should focus ir attention, said Falus, immunologist.

“If re h been more data ... responses would have been much more effective,” he said. "We could have known which cities and which counties h particularly virulent infections."

Hungary's government defended its data practices, saying in an email that it was “setting an example by communicating on a daily basis epidemiological data.”

“This is one of reasons behind cooperation of population, successful disease control and fact that we are first in EU in terms of booster vaccination,” a government spokesperson wrote, ding that criticisms of its pandemic response were “politically motivated.”

Yet last month, Hungary’s own National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information asked government to release infection data at municipal level to mayors, writing that both local leers and public “need to know figures in order to make informed decisions about how to protect mselves against pandemic.”

Similar problems were reported earlier in pandemic in Czech Republic, where mayors said y lacked details about numbers of infected people in ir communities that harmed mitigation efforts like distributing personal protective equipment.

Those issues were ultimately remedied late last year.

Trust of official statistics also has been a problem in Russia, where some experts have criticized official data on COVID-19 infections and deaths provided by state coronavirus task force, arguing reported numbers were likely an undercount.

Data analysts have pointed to inconsistencies in Russia’s virus statistics that y say suggest manipulation. While task force reported over 9.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 287,180 deaths as of Friday — highest death toll in Europe so far — a report released last week by state statistics agency Rosstat put overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to over 537,000 — almost twice official toll.

In Hungary, journalists and experts have often taken matters into ir own hands in an effort to procure more detailed information, despite efforts by government to withhold data.

After government denied a freedom of information request earlier this year, news site 444.hu filed a lawsuit to get detailed figures on daily hospitalizations, deaths and number of those treated in hospital ICUs during previous surges.

A court in November ruled that data h been unlawfully withheld, ordering its release.

Scott Griffen, deputy director of Austria-based International Press Institute, said that his group “continues to condemn Hungarian government’s efforts to block media access to information on pandemic."

Withholding such data was "fully in line with Orban’s policy of controlling message, restricting public debate, and hindering ability of independent media to do ir job,” Griffen said.

Hungary's government has argued that virus testing is an ineffective means of controlling pandemic, and that only mass vaccination can save lives. It also contends that country's high official death rate is result of broer criteria for attributing deaths to COVID-19.

During comments in Hungary's parliament this week, an opposition lawmaker asked Orban why COVID-19 death rate in Hungary was so much higher than some of its neighbors.

“Anyone who says that more people die in Hungary than elsewhere is also saying that our doctors are doing a worse job,” Orban said, “and I will defend m against your accusations.”

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Associated Press writers Dasha Litvinova in Moscow and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed.

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Follow AP's pandemic coverage a t https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

13:07 IST, December 13th 2021