’wepənaɪzeɪʃ(ə)n
And that’s what’s happening with too many things connected to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The weaponisation that I’m considering is the ongoing process of turning the vaccines available to fight the coronavirus infection into weapons with which to attack your political opponents.
It’s happening all around us. Macron and Merkel have done untold damage to their nations and economies simply in order to score points against the British. Macron is the leader of a country where anti-vaccination feeling runs incredibly high. In December 2020, only 40% of the French public said that they would be willing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus if a vaccination was made available. Considering that frightening figure, Macron’s attack on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine’s effectiveness has done nothing but encourage the French to avoid a potential life-saving vaccine, something that would enable the French economy to start the long haul back to normality.
Here in the heart of Central Europe, we’re witnessing the same tactics, albeit for different reasons.
In Hungary, the reasons for the so-called opposition’s relentless attacks upon the vaccines currently available are more insidious. The common thinking of the Left in Hungary is that the deeper the crisis grows, the more they gain in power. The Left in Hungary are openly hoping for disease and death to cut down as many of their compatriots as possible. This, they feel, will give them more of a fighting chance at the next elections as they point accusatory fingers at the government.
Hungarian opposition parties have embarked on a poster campaign in Hungary which ostensibly aims to challenge the Hungarian scientific community’s approval of the Russian and Chinese vaccines in lieu of a rubberstamp authorising their use in the EU. In actual fact, what they are hoping to achieve is to hobble the government. If they succeed, then they will have increased the risk that Hungarians face, unprotected, from the coronavirus that is all around.
That, in turn, will enable them, if everything goes according to their plan, to accuse the government of having failed to protect Hungary from the virus.
This is the message that they hope will lead to the electoral success that has eluded them for so long.
In effect, this means that the opposition are rooting for ever increasing numbers of their compatriots falling ill and dying as a means of improving their results at the ballot box. That’s sick.
The parties that pass for the opposition in Hungary have embarked on a campaign to undermine confidence in vaccines that they have decided, arbitrarily, are less safe than others. In effect, that means the only two vaccines available in large enough numbers to be able to have any effect on the spread of the coronavirus. By targeting the Russian and Chinese vaccines that the government is trying to buy in large enough numbers to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the opposition have, in essence, declared war on their own nation.
The opposition have repeatedly stated that when your time comes, you will have no choice in vaccine, and that the vaccine you receive is untested.
In a recent radio interview, Prime Minister Orbán reiterated for those who still haven’t got the message:
“Vaccination is voluntary. When a person goes in to have themselves vaccinated, they’re told which vaccine will be used. If they’re happy with the vaccine they’re offered, they will accept it and will be inoculated. If they’re not, we’ll reassure them that with this they haven’t been removed from the list of those to be vaccinated, and we will inform them when the vaccine of their choice becomes available.”
For the opposition, however, this counts for nothing.
(Viktor Orbán won’t allow free choice of vaccine in Hungary!)
In the eyes of the opposition, neither the Chinese nor the Russian vaccine is ever to be trusted.
(Stunning! Orbán and his lot want to force the Chinese vaccine not licensed by the EU on Hungarians by decree!)
Considering the history of Hungary, that assertion makes little sense – the vast majority of Hungarians alive today were vaccinated with Soviet vaccines. It also seems more than just slightly incongruous that those parties which were aligned with the communists are now desperately scrabbling in the dirt for reasons to not trust their political mentors. All the while, the same reasoning is employed: only that can be trusted that the EU have approved. An approach which conveniently ignores the fact that the pristine EU, the ones who made such a pig’s arse of the whole vaccination plan, have themselves turned to the Russians in order to make up for the short supply of vaccines available.
The EU, as we should all be aware, is a rubberstamp organisation. In Hungary, the paperwork which accompanied both the Russian and Chinese vaccines was pored over with microscopes to ensure that we’re getting what we’re paying for, and that it works as it should. The task of checking the paperwork took months. When vaccines arrive in Hungary, they are tested to see if they are suitable for use. Every batch, every single batch is tested. By Hungarian scientists.
Now, compare that with what the EU do: they check the paperwork and rubberstamp it as “OK”.
That’s all, nothing more. No checking of the vaccines. No checking of the individual batches. Nope. Just a read-through of the ‘patient information form’ and then a stamp.
So, which process would a normal person trust more? A rubber stamp, or a laboratory-tested vaccine? The problem here doesn’t lie with the vaccines on offer, the problem lies with the fact that we still can’t inoculate against stupidity. The Hungarian opposition love to put the wind up people, trying to scare them into refusing vaccines like the French and the Germans. It’s all very well trying to frighten people into not having themselves vaccinated for fear of what long-term effects might develop. Then again, refuse the vaccine and you may very well be dead before you get a chance to find out.
