Europe's third wave: Even the country with the highest vaccination rate cannot hold back the tide

[HUAJIAO]

The Telegraph
Matthew Day
Sat, March 13, 2021, 11:12 AM

(COVID-wise, Europe is historically about 2 weeks ahead of the US of A.. Watch out !! My comment)

It’s an unwelcome paradox for Hungary. Medics have dispensed over a million vaccinations, and the country now only trails Malta in the EU when it comes to vaccinations per capita, but all this has failed to prevent Hungary suffering from a crippling third Covid-19 wave, with Hungarians testing positive in record numbers.

Hungary’s health authorities reported on Friday a new daily high of 9,011 positive tests, while another 130 deaths brought the country’s Covid-19 toll to 16,627. On the same day the number of Covid patients in hospital rose by 389 to reach 8,718.

The country now has the third highest Covid-19 fatality rate in the world, and is fourth place globally in deaths per capita, according to information from the John Hopkins University.

All this despite Hungary using Russia’s Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines to help drive the vaccination rate up to 13.2 doses per 100 people, far better than the EU average of 9.1.

Tamas Sved, secretary of the Hungarian Medical Chamber, has said that the country’s health system “is almost at capacity”, not through a lack of bed and ventilators but through a lack of the specialist staff needed to keep the seriously ill alive.

Hungary’s media is now reporting that hospital doctors are having to decide who lives, and who dies.

[intrepidity]

1. Sounds like maybe those vaccines are underdelivering? nt

[tirebiter]

5. Or underperforming.

[HUAJIAO]

8. That was one of my thoughts.

[pinkstarburst]

9. Is there any data

on how those two vaccines supposedly do against the UK variant?

[LisaL]

12. Vast majority of people are still not vaccinated in Hungary.

I don't see anything to suggest vaccinated people are the ones who are getting infected.

[Hortensis]

21. Right. Also, vaccinations won't help those who are until they

are able to build immunity. Likely Hungary hasn't been vaccinating many very long, with most pretty recently.

I just did a quick glance:

They started with some Pfizer in December, but reportedly less than 15% were willing to get it then.

(!) to that.

After, in probably mid February they started vaccinating with a Russian vaccine, then in last week of February with China's Sinopharm, for which users in UAE report about 79% efficacy, and perhaps similar in protection to J&J's, i.e., more people become infected, but no critical care needed and no deaths.

[Initech]

14. I wouldn't trust the Russian vaccine with a 10 foot needle.

I would bet some very good money that they lied about the efficacy results. Putin is not to be trusted on anything.

[LisaL]

15. There is no evidence that it doesn't work.

About 11 % of adults in Hungary received at least 1 vaccination dose. You need two doses to be fully protected (unless it's J&J, which they haven't been using so far). So that leaves plenty of un-vaccinated people to get infected.

[BannonsLiver]

18. +10000

They are the Klingons of our world.

[WarGamer]

37. Take up your gripes with The Lancet

"Countries are lining up for supplies of Sputnik V after peer-reviewed results published in The Lancet medical journal this week showed the Russian vaccine protects against the deadly virus about as well as U.S. and European shots, and far more effectively than Chinese rivals."

[Initech]

39. OK I stand corrected then.

[WarGamer]

36. You need to read up...

Countries are lining up for supplies of Sputnik V after peer-reviewed results published in The Lancet medical journal this week showed the Russian vaccine protects against the deadly virus about as well as U.S. and European shots, and far more effectively than Chinese rivals.


https://fortune.com/2021/02/08/international-sputnik-russia-demand/

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

Cecilia Muller, Hungary’s chief medical officer, attributes the rapid rise in cases to the highly contagious British Covid variant. The mutant strain is now sweeping across Europe, and research in Hungary shows that it is now responsible for 50 per cent of positive tests in the country, and that proportion is expected to grow.

Other Central European countries are also falling under the dark sway of the British mutation. The Czech and Slovak republics, praised last year for their efforts at containing the first wave, are now battling the grim effects of the third wave with 207 people dying on March 12 in the Czech Republic.

In Poland, where the British variant now accounts for around 40 per cent of infections, the daily infection rate topped 21,000 on Friday, and this week the capital Warsaw came under a tighter lockdown regime.

To add to their woes AstraZenica, the Anglo/Swedish pharmaceutical firm, announced on Saturday a delay in vaccine supplies to the EU.

It had previously warned it was facing shortfalls from its European supply chain due to "lower-than-expected output from the production process."

[HUAJIAO]

6. Thanks for adding more of the article...

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Bad news, but what would be the reasons for this rate? Are the...

Russian and/or Chinese vaxes ineffective? Do the people practice the social distancing and masking recommendations?

And 13.2% is good but not really high enough.

on edit-- I see that they blame the British variant. But, still, is that the only reason?

[HUAJIAO]

7. Maybe a combination of things,,,,, like here...

not enough vaccine,
new variants
maskless fools
etc........

[Initech]

16. No I'd blame the Russian vaccine.

Putin sounds like a dirty dealer and I would not trust a single word he says about the Sputnik vaccine.

[GopherGal]

25. I'd guess a combo of the two

All the vaccines were, of course, developed against the original version of the virus. Even if you have 100% faith in the effectiveness/trials of the Sputnik vaccine, it may have diminished effectiveness against the mutated variants (and any claims about its effectiveness against the variant should be subject to at least the same level of skepticism as the original claims.)

[LisaL]

27. Do you not understand that only 11 % people in Hungary received at least one dose so far?

They are also using 5 different vaccines. Why exactly are you picking on Russian vaccine? There is no data provided in the article to indicate vaccinated people are the ones getting infected.

[Initech]

31. I think it's my distrust of anything Putin says.

The Sinofarm and Russian vaccines have been proven to have the least efficacy of anything that's come out so far, am I right about that?

And yeah I do agree that with a single dose it's still too early to tell what's going to happen.

[LisaL]

32. Sputnik's efficacy was over 90 %.

Presumably that was against original variant.

[Mariana]

28. The overwhelming majority of the people haven't been vaccinated yet

and are therefore susceptible.

All this despite Hungary using Russia’s Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines to help drive the vaccination rate up to 13.2 doses per 100 people...

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Hungary has not yet reached the peak of new cases per capita that the UK did in early January

so yes, you can basically put this down to the British variant. They may not have been distancing and masking as much as they ought (as the UK wasn't in December).

See https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus for a graph of countries' infection (or death) rates.

[moondust]

10. Italy is locking down again.

Rome, Milan, Venice, and others will be "red zones" starting Monday.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-covid-coronavirus-3rd-wave-new-lockdown/

[HUAJIAO]

22. And we followed right behind them last spring and summer.....

[retread]

11. "...highest vaccination rate"

"As of Friday, 11.9% of Hungary's adult population had received at least one dose of a vaccine."

About 88% of adults are NOT vaccinated.

[bottomofthehill]

23. Yep, and about 75+% needed for herd immunity to kick in

[Cal Carpenter]

13. My state's (Michigan) 7-day average has almost DOUBLED in the last 3 weeks

while the rest of the country is still decreasing a bit on average.

I don't know if we're a harbinger for the rest of the country or what, but the fact that our governor LOOSENED restrictions on businesses 2 weeks ago was not a fucking good idea. Because any impact from that won't have shown up yet, which means numbers will keep going up. Again. AND we have plenty of cases of the UK variant here and even some of the S African variant as of last week.

SO FRUSTRATED.

[HUAJIAO]

19. I think you are a harbinger.

Lots of places, states, are 'opening up. I live in Upstate NY. Cuomo is getting ready to open more cause the 'rates are going down."
But hell, they are still 3-4 times higher for infections/capita than last summer!

Dumb !! And he has MOSTLY done pretty well for the last year.

(NO comments on his current situation, please.... )

[Klaralven]

35. New Jersey's new cases 7-day moving average has gone from 2887 on 2/24 to 3497 yesterday

Same approach of declaring success, loosening restriction. Restaurants, bars, gatherings, and school sports are madness before the rate goes down.

Apparently the political calculation is that people will tolerate a high rate of Covid cases so long as the hospitals aren't overloaded.

[tanyev]

17. Good thing Gov. Abbott dropped the mask mandate and opened TX up 100%.

[HUAJIAO]

20. Texas is about to become the next Brazil !!

[tanyev]

24. That's what I'm afraid of.

[flying_wahini]

26. Actually Texas is doing much better as vaccination coverage amount seniors is pretty good.

The young’uns may not be so lucky. Between Ken Paxton trying to sue Austin for wearing masks and Gov Hot Wheels doing exactly the wrong thing Over again we are pretty screwed. Most the liberals I know are paying attention and wearing masks.

[Cicada]

29. Only 13% vaccinated, best in Europe is faint praise.

[WarGamer]

38. US at 14% right?

[LisaL]

40. No, we are at 20 %.

"19.9%. That’s the percentage of Americans who have received at least one vaccine shot. The share of Americans who are fully vaccinated is 10.5%, meaning they’ve taken two doses of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine. Once 70% to 90% of Americans have some degree of immunity from the coronavirus due to either past infection or vaccination, most experts think the country will reach “herd immunity,” meaning the virus will have a much harder time spreading."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/03/12/the-us-has-now-administered-100-million-covid-vaccine-shots/?sh=61013a0b3e8d

[WarGamer]

41. Hoping J&J sends us up fast!!

[EX500rider]

42. Actually the US is about to reach 30%:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1194939/rate-covid-vaccination-by-county-worldwide/

[roamer65]

30. Just like 1918-1920.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.

Mark Twain quote I do believe.

[Ms. Toad]

34. If you pull up the Hungary curve - they are closer to 2 months

than 2 weeks, ahead of the US.

Their trough started sometime in January.