Government buys all available flu shots in Hungary, which may endanger many

While the government already had a rather large supply (1.3 million) of flu shots developed in Hungary, they also bought all of Sanofi’s reserves of the internationally developed vaccine, Vaxigrip Tetra.

24.hu writes that they know from the International Vaccine Centre, Budapest that the government bought all available flu shots developed by Sanofi. It is unknown how many shots were available, but the International Vaccine Centre guesses hundreds of thousands. Vaxigrip Tetra is the only shot that can be given to children under the age of three.

The production of Vaxigrip Tetra is a lengthy process and stocks are limited. Sanofi announced that they could not ship any more to Hungary. Therefore, the internationally developed vaccine will not be available in pharmacies or private vaccination centres.

The government already had a rather large supply (1.3 million) of Hungarian flu shots called 3Fluart. The government ordered 1.3 million Hungarian vaccines this year, same as last year. Now, their supply is supplemented with Sanofi’s vaccines. As only half of these were used in 2019, the government finds the amount sufficient for this year also. However,