The far-right Mi Hazánk party has launched a petition to protest against the vaccination for children aged 12 to 15 in Hungary. The party claims that vaccination is three times more deadly for children than the coronavirus itself. According to an expert asked by news site Telex, however, the figures cited by Mi Hazánk are misleading and cannot be used to decide on the issue.
“Leave our children alone!” says the Mi Hazánk party, to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in their new campaign in protest of the vaccination rollout for those under the age of 15 in Hungary.
Előd Novák, vice-president of Mi Hazánk claims that according to an alleged report, the vaccine is “three times more deadly for children than the coronavirus itself.” Novák added that the vaccines have unknown long-term effects while the coronavirus is not dangerous for children.
The report mentioned by Novák is in fact a Twitter post by Andrew G. Bostom from May 16th. In the post, Bostom wrote: “Covid-19 vaccine risk-benefit data for those under 18 are NOT favorable and reveal a potential 3-fold excess risk of fatal and life-threatening events for each potential death averted from covid-19 by vaccination.”
Covid-19 Vaccine Risk-Benefit Data For Those Under 18-Years Old Are NOT Favorable And Reveal A Potential 3-Fold Excess Risk of Fatal and Life Threatening Events For Each Potential Death Averted From Covid-19 By Vaccination pic.twitter.com/GGnl1Av7Eh
— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) May 16, 2021
However, according to Tamás Ferenci, biostatistician and associate professor at Óbuda University, the data table, although interesting, is based on data unsuitable to prove a conclusion, and there are also problems with the methodology of the calculation.
“So the table cited by Mi Hazánk does not at all prove that vaccines have a threefold – or any – risk whatsoever,” the expert said.
The vaccination of children between the age of 12-15 started in Hungary in mid-June after the EU’s medicines agency (EMA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for this age group. In Hungary, it is up to the parents to decide whether they want their child to be vaccinated.
It’s not the first time the far-right Mi Hazánk politicians have raised their voice against the government’s measures against the coronavirus pandemic. They have criticized the extension of the Covid-related restrictions several times, while in March, during Hungary’s toughest month of the third Covid wave, they even organized a demonstration against the “excessive closures” that were in effect at the time.
In the featured photo: Mi Hazánk leader László Toroczkai. Photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI
