The Hungarian government has published its vaccine procurement contracts with the producers of Sputnik V and Sinopharm’s vaccine. In the past months, the government avoided all requests of publication, despite being in agreement that the contracts are of public interest.
The main noticeable difference between the two contracts is that while the government purchased the Russian vaccine directly, the purchase of the Chinese vaccine took place through a third party, at a much higher price.
Hungarian Government’s Previous Secrecy Around Vaccine Contracts
The Hungarian government has, until now, avoided publishing the vaccine contracts. Liberal news portal 444.hu went to multiple government departments asking for the details of the vaccine orders but received no information. Minister Gulyás told the news portal that the documents would be shared, as they are public interest data, however he did not say where the information could be located.