The Hungarian government has brought up quite often that Hungary will be the most vaccinated country in the EU by using the Russian and Chinese vaccines. This is indeed the case; in fact, Hungary is already at the forefront of the world in terms of rankings of the number of people vaccinated against Covid-19 per hundred.
Statistics for Everyone visualises major world events from time to time in the form of spectacular statistical diagrams. Their videos cover almost everything, from the economy through politics to healthcare. Recently, they, too, as all sectors, have published a number of pandemic statistics.
One of their most recent videos reflects on a very upscale position from a Hungarian perspective as we passed hundreds of countries, meaning that the Hungarian vaccination program is moving much faster than the vaccination program of most countries in the world.
This seems like a huge success, but Portfolio poses the question: is it really?
According to the Financial Times database, 14.6 vaccines were administered per 100 inhabitants in Hungary on Tuesday night, thus achieving this prestigious place. This is a significant improvement from the situation four weeks ago when only 4.2 vaccines had been administered per 100 people, but if we look at the rate in the top country, Israel, we immediately reinterpret success. In Israel, there are 99.1 vaccines given per 100 inhabitants, meaning that almost every inhabitant has received one vaccine.
All vaccines given are significant, as vaccination is of enormous importance at the individual level, but at the social level, the 14 vaccines per 100 inhabitants in Hungary seem to be far from enough to curb the epidemic in any way. Unfortunately, the number of cases in the country is growing at an unprecedented rate in Hungary, so the government had to impose strict restrictions.
Reality shows that not enough people have been vaccinated to curb the spread of the epidemic. Epidemiological mathematicians say this would require at least 60% of the population to be vaccinated, but if mutants will spread faster, the rate could be higher. Thus, our current relative speed does not provide any practical advantage over the rest of the EU.
So the fight continues…