06-20-2021, 02:44 PM
Victor Orban and his far right party are in power in Hungary. Oddly enough, his party has used soccer as a way to entrench its power. They currently control 10 of the 12 top clubs and will increase that to 11 next season. The big stadium is a jewel in the crown. Of course holding the International was politically important. Was it safe? Maybe, but I’m not sure that was a deal-breaker.
Is it simply a coincidence that another far right leader, Brazil’s Bolsonaro, has hosted a big soccer event, Copa America, despite Covid-hit Latin countries being reluctant to act as hosts?
But apart from them both being more than a bit fascist (or as I like to call them, Blue Communists), they have approached Covid quite differently. Bolsonaro treats Covid as a hoax and does bugger all to stop it. He’s Brazil’s Trump. He even shares Trump’s hard-on over HCQ. He didn’t start his own warp-speed program regarding vaccines though. As a result, Brazil has been as slow to roll out vaccines as Australia. Like Australia, it blew off repeated offers from Pfizer. Now, it has suffered more than 500,000 deaths, making it 2nd only to the US for deaths.
By contrast, the Hungarians suffered a massive 3rd wave, boasting the world’s highest mortality rate at the time. Restrictions were brought in to control it and Orban instituted a massive vaccination program. Controversially, he embraced the Russian and Chinese vaccines to make it happen. For a nation of around 10 million, the death toll stands at over 30,000 but it led the EU in April for vaccination rates along with Malta. As you noted, its vaccination rate is way beyond Australia’s. Added to the natural immunity recovered Covid patients may have, they may be close to herd immunity. In fact, Hungary issues “immunity cards” to those who have been vaccinated and requires customers to produce them to enter restaurants and even soccer matches. Perhaps, the crowd at the international match you mention were required to produce such cards in order to be part of that crowd.
I don’t think Hungary’s Covid response shows that Covid is nothing to worry about or that we should just let it rip. It seems quite the opposite. Vaccinations are the key to their re-opening.
If only Scotty from Marketing had capitalised on the elimination efforts to roll out vaccines quickly. Imagine if we could accelerate uptake with something like an immunity card conferring access to events and travel. But how could we do this when a large percentage of the population hasn’t been eligible for vaccinations?
Is it simply a coincidence that another far right leader, Brazil’s Bolsonaro, has hosted a big soccer event, Copa America, despite Covid-hit Latin countries being reluctant to act as hosts?
But apart from them both being more than a bit fascist (or as I like to call them, Blue Communists), they have approached Covid quite differently. Bolsonaro treats Covid as a hoax and does bugger all to stop it. He’s Brazil’s Trump. He even shares Trump’s hard-on over HCQ. He didn’t start his own warp-speed program regarding vaccines though. As a result, Brazil has been as slow to roll out vaccines as Australia. Like Australia, it blew off repeated offers from Pfizer. Now, it has suffered more than 500,000 deaths, making it 2nd only to the US for deaths.
By contrast, the Hungarians suffered a massive 3rd wave, boasting the world’s highest mortality rate at the time. Restrictions were brought in to control it and Orban instituted a massive vaccination program. Controversially, he embraced the Russian and Chinese vaccines to make it happen. For a nation of around 10 million, the death toll stands at over 30,000 but it led the EU in April for vaccination rates along with Malta. As you noted, its vaccination rate is way beyond Australia’s. Added to the natural immunity recovered Covid patients may have, they may be close to herd immunity. In fact, Hungary issues “immunity cards” to those who have been vaccinated and requires customers to produce them to enter restaurants and even soccer matches. Perhaps, the crowd at the international match you mention were required to produce such cards in order to be part of that crowd.
I don’t think Hungary’s Covid response shows that Covid is nothing to worry about or that we should just let it rip. It seems quite the opposite. Vaccinations are the key to their re-opening.
If only Scotty from Marketing had capitalised on the elimination efforts to roll out vaccines quickly. Imagine if we could accelerate uptake with something like an immunity card conferring access to events and travel. But how could we do this when a large percentage of the population hasn’t been eligible for vaccinations?