"Political attack": Hungarian Foreign Minister spoke about attacks on the country because of the position on the Sputnik V vaccine

Hungary has undergone a "large-scale political attack" for the Sputnik V vaccine.

This was stated in an interview with RT by the country's Foreign Minister Peter Siyarto.

At the same time, the minister drew attention to the fact that those who expressed dissatisfaction with the use of "Sputnik" were not interested in the opinion of scientists and the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“None of those who attacked us asked:“ What do your experts say?

Is it really effective, safe? "

No, we were attacked simply because we decided to turn our gaze to the east, instead of looking only to the west, ”the head of the Foreign Ministry said.

Siyarto stressed that the big mistake that was made in a number of European countries was that the issue of vaccination was given an ideological character.

• Hungarian Foreign Minister spoke about the country's position on the Sputnik V vaccine

“Now more and more Western European leaders are openly talking about the need to add Sputnik to the list of approved vaccines,” he said.

At the same time, the minister expressed the opinion that the strategy for the procurement of vaccines, which Brussels adheres to, has failed, because, despite expectations, much less vaccines are being supplied and this is happening much slower than announced.

Peter Siyjarto himself said on March 20 that he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

On February 7, the Hungarian National Center for Public Health authorized the use of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 Sputnik V in the country.

On March 4, the press service of the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the Committee on Medicines for Medical Use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun the procedure for the consistent examination of the Sputnik V registration dossier. 

At the same time, some Western politicians spoke out against the use of "Sputnik V" in the region.

For example, the Secretary of State at the French Foreign Ministry, Clement Bon, said that the decision of some countries to use the Russian or Chinese vaccine individually without general agreement within the EU "creates a problem of solidarity, as well as a sanitary problem."

Bon did not provide any evidence of such a statement. 

Also in early February, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Russia and China were allegedly trying to use the coronavirus vaccines they had developed to achieve diplomatic goals.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called such statements sad, and President Vladimir Putin later noted that a "targeted information campaign with unsubstantiated accusations on a number of issues" was being waged against Russia, including attempts to question achievements in the fight against coronavirus ...

We will remind, "Sputnik V" became the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus infection COVID-19.

At the same time, at first, the drug was criticized by a number of Western experts, who said that the Russian side allegedly rushed with registration, without having carried out the necessary research in full.

However, later the attitude towards the drug changed.

In particular, in November, Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading and Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in an interview with CBC, positively assessed the Russian vaccine. 

“The available data allow us to conclude that the vaccine is quite effective.

These results are consistent with what has been observed with other vaccines, as the really important takeaway for medical scientists around the world is that this disease (COVID-19 

- RT

) can be fought with vaccines, ”said Stephen Evans ... 

In December, in a conversation with RT, the head of the RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, drew attention to the fact that those who criticize the Russian vaccine often do so due to ignorance of all the facts.

According to him, the most "militant" criticism is due to competition and geopolitical reasons.

On February 2, 2021, one of the most respected medical journals in the world, The Lancet, published the results of the third phase of a clinical trial of the vaccine, which confirmed its safety and high efficacy at 91.6%.

According to the latest RDIF data, more than 50 states with a total population of over 1.4 billion people have already approved the use of Sputnik V. 

On March 19, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced their readiness at the national level to make a decision on the use of a Russian vaccine if the drug is not approved by the European Medicines Agency.

Also, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder spoke in favor of the early approval of the use of Sputnik V in Germany.

In addition, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz urged EMA to register Russian and "all safe vaccines" for use in Europe as soon as possible, noting that "the more vaccines, the better."