Despite the U.S. campaign to tell countries it is better to be dead than accept Sputnik V vaccines, there appears to be a drumbeat for the vaccine building in Europe.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that he was inoculated with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. “We could win the fight [against COVID-19] only with vaccines.… Today, we have finalized a deal with Russian Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov on the deliveries of Sputnik V vaccines in March. (I have also got inoculated with this vaccine today),” Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook page on March 19.
Despite its EU membership Hungary did not wait for approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Better to be a live Hungarian than a dead Europhile. Hungary has immunized 14% of its 10 million citizens. Another EU member that followed suit was Slovakia on March 1.
